But if you're not one for the usual or the commercial, you can create your own ABC book and make it a more personalized one as well. If the mommy-to-be already knows if her baby's going to be a boy or a girl, then you're in luck. It's much easier to stick to a theme when you're planning according to gender.
While ABC books made of paper are definitely the norm, why not let the baby get into the action himself by making a book out of cloth? Then mommy can read the book to the baby but it's not something that needs to be hands off for him.
It's not that scary, you don't need to sew anything together! With craft supplies like iron-on tape, fusible webbing, fabric glue, pinking shears, and grommets, you can create a fabric alphabet book no stitches at all.
Choose the fabric carefully. The usual craft felt gives off fibers that can be ingested by the baby so choose smooth cotton, cotton duck, plain or striped mattress ticking, denim, chambray, or polyester. Get several colors and designs in the same type of fabric so that when you're fusing them together you won't chance burning them.
Make a mock-up of your book first with four sheets of bond paper. Fold each paper in half and then in half again. Cut each sheet in half crosswise. You'll only need seven half-sheets to complete your book.
Next, make your letters from the printed fabrics that you've chosen. First of all, choose a simple font on your computer and print out the letters in the right size for the pages. You can choose to use the lower case letters only. A rough guide would be to have the tallest letters (like “f” or “d”) reach about four inches high.
After they're all done, trace out the WRONG side with a heavy black marker. Set the fusible webbing on top and trace out the mirror image with a pencil. You might want to indicate on the similar letters which one is which, like the “d” and the “p” for example.
Cut out around the letters, leaving a bit of allowance on the sides.
Next, iron out all the creases in the fabric you've chosen for the letters. With the WRONG side up, arrange your fusible webbing on the fabric, making sure the webbing is next to the fabric. Press the webbing into the fabric with a hot iron doing up and down strokes.
Cut out the letters carefully. Next, using denim or ticking as the base, cut them to slightly bigger sizes than the mock-up. Use the mock-up to arrange the letters in order and then follow the same arrangement on the fabric. Iron the letters on carefully.
Pink the edges of the pages and then pierce the “spine”
of the book with two heavy duty grommets to hold everything together.
Secure the grommets with a large ribbon and a secure knot and you're
done!