Bookmarks
Sew Along With Us
Just ask my mum, I used to be a little book worm. But since having kids my books have sat collecting dust on my shelves.
BUT, thanks to a little nudge from my dear cousin, I picked up a book again and got sucked back into the world of reading and boy did I miss it!
I did find one problem though - I was forever hunting for a bookmark. Scrap bits of paper or tissues just weren't cutting it for me. So I did some research and some scheming to bring you 3 different book mark styles!
First up is my favourite style. And don't worry - it does hold your place and it doesn't wreck the spine either.
What you need:
- Cotton Twill (gathered piece 00x00 + back piece 00x00)
- Iron on Interfacing (00x00)
- Sewing Machine
- Thread
- Pinking Shears
- Small Piece of Ribbon (00cm long)
How to Make It:
Once your fabric is cut out to the sizes listed above, you will need to iron the interfacing onto the back piece of the bookmark.
Take the longer bookmark piece (this will be the piece that will be gathered) and run a gathering stitch down the center of it. You can do this by having your machine set at the longest stitch - and make sure you dont do any back stitching at the start or finish.
Once you have sewn that line, gather the piece by pulling gently on one of the threads.
This next step is a bit awkward but you have to position the gathered piece ontop of the interfacing back piece. It will be a bit tricky to keep it in place so use lots of pins and don't stress too much if it looks a bit messy. Once it's all in place you will need to slip in the little ribbon piece to the top of the bookmark.
Sew around the outside of the book mark. Making sure you catch all 3 layers of fabric and interfacing.
Once sewn it will look very messy. But thats okay. You will need to snip off any excess fabric with your pinking shears now.
Don't forget to snip the ends of your ribbon so that they don't fray.
And finally, iron it flat the best you can
Option 2: The Corner Bookmark
What You'll Need:
- Cotton Twill squares
- Iron on Interfacing
How to make it:
Once you have cut out the 3 squares of cotton twill, and 2 squares of interfacing, one of the interfacing squares will need to be cut in half diagonally.
The interfacing can then be attached to the two outer twill pieces by using the iron.
Fold over the half interfacing piece so that it is a triangle
Layer the fabric so that it goes Back piece - triangle piece - lining piece
Sew around the edge of the pile of fabric, make sure you leave a gap in the stitching to turn it later.
Flip it so its the right way out, and iron it down to flatten
Top stitch the hole closed with a colour matched thread
Option 3: The Applique Bookmark
What you need:
- Cotton twill
- fabric cut outs of the elements you'd like appliqued onto the bookmark
- iron on interfacing
How to make it:
Take the front rectangle piece and position the elements how you would like. Pin in place.
Sew around the outer edge of the elements. You can do this two ways… The first way is to do a small straight stitch close to the edge, almost like an outline around it. The second way is to do a small zigzag that is close together ( similar to a button hole ) and as you sew make sure that one side of the zigzag is on the element and the other is off. This is so that the edge of the element is caught and enclosed in the in stitching.
Once all of the elements have been appliqued, attached iron on interfacing to the front piece.
With the two cotton twill pieces, wrong sides together, sew a straight stitch around the outside.
Using pinking shears, trim off any excess fabric and prevent it from fraying.
