How to make a cloth book

1. Materials & tools

Materials (15 × 16 cm, 6 pages)

• Outer and lining (Oxford cloth or sheeting) — about 35 × 20 cm each, per sheet
• Lightweight fusible interfacing — one per sheet, if you want body
• Felt, buttons, ribbon — as much as your activities need
• Hand-sewing thread

Tools

• Sewing machine (or needle and thread)
• Fabric marker or pencil
• Ruler and scissors
• Iron
• Pins or clips

2. Make the pattern (auto-generated in Katagami)

With the Katagami pattern tool, you just enter the finished size and it drafts a seam-allowance-included pattern, tiled to print at actual size on Letter or A4.

1. Open the tool
   Open the pattern tool and choose “Baby” → “Cloth book” from the tabs at the top.
2. Enter the size
   Enter the width of one page, the height, the number of sheets and the corner radius. Presets cover small, standard and large.
3. Set the seam allowance
   Use the slider at the bottom (beginners: 1.0–1.5 cm / about 3/8–5/8 in).
4. Print
   Press “Print (actual size)”, then in the print dialog set Scale = 100% and turn “Fit to page” OFF. Check the 50 mm calibration box on the first guide sheet with a ruler.

3. Cutting the fabric

1. Trace the pattern
   Lay the pattern on the wrong side and trace both lines. One pattern piece is a two-page spread.
2. Cut the pieces
   Two per sheet (outer and lining). The standard is 3 sheets — 6 pages.
3. Transfer the notches
   Mark the center top and bottom. That line becomes the spine.
4. Add the activities first
   Sew felt and buttons to each page before the layers go together. There is no reaching inside afterwards.

4. Sewing

4-1. Add the activities

1. Sew felt fruit, buttons and ribbons to what will be the outside of each sheet.
2. Use doubled thread for buttons and wrap the shank well. A button that comes off is a choking hazard.
3. Leave 1.5 cm either side of the center line clear — the spine gets stitched there.

4-2. Sew each sheet

1. Place outer and lining right sides together and sew around, leaving about 8 cm open along the bottom.
2. Clip the seam allowance at the rounded corners so they do not pull when turned.
3. Sew every sheet the same way.

4-3. Turn and topstitch

1. Turn right side out and ease the corners out with an awl.
2. Fold the opening's allowance inwards and topstitch all the way round, closing it as you go.

4-4. Sew the spine

1. Stack every sheet with the center notches lined up.
2. Machine along the center line, going back and forth two or three times. That is the spine.
3. If the machine will not climb the thickness, backstitch it by hand instead.
4. Crease the fold so it opens flat.

✏️ Sew the spine through every sheet at once. Sewing pairs and stacking them afterwards leaves the pages loose and it never becomes a book. If the thickness stalls the machine, reduce the presser-foot pressure or switch to hand sewing.

5. Tips & variations

• Pages come in twos: one sheet is a two-page spread. Three sheets give six pages, four give eight.
• Interfacing or not: fused interfacing makes pages crisp and easy to turn. Leave it out for something floppier.
• Classic activities: doing up a button, threading a cord, pulling apart hook-and-loop. All of it is finger practice.