Catholic Mass Book for Little Ones

Seeing as Jesus is the reason for the season, I love to give some faith-oriented Christmas gifts but I can't always find what I'm looking for and I have to take matters into my own hands.

This year I decided to try my hand at a fabric Mass book for babies and toddlers.  It was quite a challenge to subdue the over-achiever in me with this project because it was so much fun!!!

Here, we have the front of the book:

The tan fabric you see here is a twill.  The darker color rimming the embellishments on the front is a polyester felt.  I used a fusible interfacing on the twill and quilted certain parts of the book to give the pages a little more depth.

First Page (oops, looks like some drips of water fell on it while I was taking the pictures):

Baby come to Mass, Family is here!

It says "Family is here!" to aid parents in pointing out religious pictures and statues of our spiritual family - the Saints!  I cross-stitched the wording, but I think a printed fabric would be fantastic.  The blue pocket on the right holds little felt figures of St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother Mary.  The candle represents the votive candles you would see in front of the statues in a church:

I attached the figures with elastic so that they can be played with but not lost or dropped on the floor.  As a parent, there really is nothing worse than crawling under pews in search of dropped -- or should I say, thrown? -- toys!

I used at least three layers of felt to make the figures a bit more durable.  My hope is that they will stand up to some slobbery baby chewing.

Second Page:

Come sing, come listen, come pray.

This next page is to aid parents in pointing out the ways we participate in the Mass and helps introduce the Liturgy of the Word.  The pocket holds a music note to represent singing hymns and praise, a lectionary to represent listening to the readings of the Bible, and praying hands to represent the obvious - prayer!

Last Page:

Come see!  Jesus is here!

This page is to aid parents before and during the Consecration of the Eucharist.  It says "Jesus is here!" to help introduce the Real Presence of Jesus.  The figures for this page are the chalice, the crucifix, and the host on the paten.

I didn't put anything on the back of the book, so I don't have a picture of that.

Not going to lie, this Catholic Mass Book for Little Ones was a wee bit labor intensive, but the fabrics and trims were a blast to work with and I can't be happier about the way it turned out.  My favorite part is that the book is virtually noise-free.  Yay fabric.  And as anyone who has attempted to entertain a little one during Mass can attest, a silent activity of the faith-oriented variety is a rare thing indeed!