Just a quickie for Fabric Friday this week that combines my love of fabric with my passion for reading.
Bookmarks are fairly easy to create and involve some very basic skills. In this post I’ll give you a very basic overview as to how I create mine to give you a jumping off point in case you wanted to have a go yourself.
Tools/Materials are quite basic – some fabric, thread, a sewing machine (or you could hand sew these) and pins. I also used some scraps of fusible stabilizer to give the bookmarks “body” but you don’t have to.
The method of construction is very simple and very similar to the first stages of the fabric bowl from the last Fabric Friday post.
First, cut two equally sized rectangular pieces of fabric. The length is up to you but as a general idea you should aim for about a 2 inch wide strip; this will give you a 1.5 inch wide bookmark when complete – you can of course vary this.
If you are going to use fusible stabilizer, add to the backs of one or both pieces of fabric at this point.
Place the pieces right side together and sew around the outer edge, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, and leaving a 2 or 3 inch gap along one of the longer edges.
Turn the piece right sides out, clip the corners, press and then stitch around the outer edge with a scant seam allowance. Using a zip insertion foot is good for this as you can get very close to the edge as you can see here.
Alternatively you can use a fabric glue to close up the gap if you didn’t want any stitches showing.
That’s it, you’re done.
Decoration and/or attachments are done at various stages.
I’d suggest that decoration that involves the application of colour in any way (painting, stitching, stamping etc) be done before cutting/stitching. This keeps the surface of the fabric flat which is easier to work on and allows you to pick out part of a design, for example if you were to tye dye your fabric or something like that.
You can of course add things such as heat fusible appliqué after the piece has been stitched but if you want to add stitching to the design, you’re again better off doing it before cutting/sewing up.
Here are a few that I made the other day, just to give you a flavour.
First, a group shot – smile :)
Next a little look at each bookmark.
Now, apparently this little fella didn’t make it into the group shot – perhaps he was shy or just flew off to get a biscuit or something – who knows – but anyway, I made him by hand stamping the design onto fabric using Versacraft inkpads and then heat setting the design with a hot iron before cutting out and sewing.
I got this text script fabric from e-Bay a while back and have been looking for an excuse to use it – how perfect is it as a book mark?! This time I glued the gap shut, rather than top stitching the edge.
This blue fabric has appeared as a shopping bag before but I noticed that it had a section of the design that would work for the long rectangular shape of a bookmark, so a snipped and stitched and hey presto – fabulous!
I added the eyelet with the intention of hanging something from it, but I haven’t decided what yet.
For this pretty pink and burgundy number I took quite a muted background fabric and added the stitched leaves with a decorative stitch from my sewing machine. I did it in two colours (not sure that you can make out the darker one though).
The finishing touch was the bow – oh, I should say that the loop was added whilst stitching the bookmark together; I trapped it in the seam so that when it was turned right sides out it was sewn in. I used fabric glue to actually add the bow itself.
The end. Lol!
So, yeah, I said that this one was going to be a quick one – lol! This is good though as time is often short and these little things take very little time to put together, you could even have a few made as gifts in an afternoon.
Oh, I almost forgot, I clearly had to make one to match the Gentleman Crafter ethos now didn’t I?
Tashtastic!
Thanks for reading and I hope that you’ll give this a go sometime in the future.
Feel free to share the love by posting your makes on social networks along with a link to this blog post (if you would be so kind).
You know the drill by now – any questions or comments about this then please feel free to use the comments box at the bottom of the page. Maybe even let me know what you are reading at the moment, the book in these photos was from Dean Koontz and is called “Innocence”.
Anyway, I’m offski for now. Take care of yourself and see you again soon.
J :)
GENTLEMAN CRAFTER 
One can never have too many books or too many bookmarks ~~ I love having a bookmark in every book and new ideas are always welcome ~~ nothing worse than searching for a bookmark when you need one. Of course, some books need more than one when doing research. I especially like the little owl one.
LikeLike
Made some hybrid bookmarks last xmas. Used fabric and card, decorated one side with stamps etc & the other side with fabric offcuts. Glued them together, left some of the fabric so you could pull it off (stress reliever) when you needed to. The Nurses enjoyed tbeir pressies.
Love your bookmark idea, some fab makes. My fave is the moustache one, oh yes and the owl.
Happy weekend:-) x
LikeLike
loved the bookmarks John and I have got loads of fabric that could be used and have got some owl dies that could make the applique so I’m sorted for a while x
LikeLike
I think the owl get my vote, John. He is just too cute for words, and the blue fabric one come in a close second, it’s really striking. What a shame I now read via my Kindle…maybe I can whip up a cloth cover for it :)
LikeLike
I love the bookmarks, John, they’re so easy and I love the blue one. You realise that I will be keeping the small scraps that I would normally discard in order to make bookmarks. If anyone complains I shall say it’s your fault. Lol!
LikeLike
I’m happy to take responsibility for cutting down waste any day :)
LikeLike
Hello John
The book marks are fab – blue one is my favourite – the pattern is perfect for a book mark – really stands out.
would make excellent fund raiser idea.
Thanks for sharing – looking forward to next fabric Friday
Diana
LikeLike
Hi John. Just want to find out if there have been any more Updates to Download or the Brother ScanNCut from Brother. Or has there still only been the one so far. Regards Edna
LikeLike
If you check the brother support website this details all releases. The website address is http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=gb&lang=en&prod=hf_cm600dxeuk&os=99
LikeLike
LOVE them! Smoly fandabadosy! Thank you for sharing . B :-)
LikeLike
You’re welcome :)
LikeLike
Love these bookmarks. Like the blue one best. I also like the Agatha Raison books and have read them all.
LikeLike
Hi John. Love all the bookmarks. My daughter bought me a Kindle at Christmas and although its great there´s nothing like the smell of a new book or the crisp pages turning is there?
Love Val in Spain x
LikeLike
You are so right Val! :)
LikeLike
oooh another old-fashioned reader – goodoh
LikeLike
Finally got back into WordPress. Look forward to your posts each week John. You share some great ideas. Gail Rist
LikeLike
Thank you Gail. Welcome back to wordpress!
LikeLike
love the bookmarks – my problem is that I think I’m the only one I know that reads the old fashioned way – blippin e books :-(
LikeLike
Lol, you’re definitely not alone. :)
LikeLike
Hi John
I love what you have been doing with book marks. I used to chop up Christmas or birthday cards as I was always losing my leather or lace ones. It really bugged me. But I had an idea while reading your post. If you sewed in a pretty piece of elastic at both ends of the book mark, (making a loop) ladies could then wear it as a head band whilst reading, or for men use some wide black or brown elastic in the same way and just slip it onto your arm whilst reading. Another plus to this would be that the book mark could be placed in the book when finished reading, and the elastic would slip around the back of the book, keeping the whole thing secure. I hope you like my idea and give it a try. I’m afraid I succumbed to the kindle to travel with, but I still read books at bedtime, so never lose my precoius book marks. I’m currently reading M.C.Beatons Agatha Raisin stories, they are very funny.
Best wishes
Sioux x x x x
LikeLike
Great idea! Ps, love Agatha Raisin stories – mostly have them as audio books though so that I can listen as I create :)
LikeLike
Love these easy bookmarks, think I could even do these. Love the blue and Tashtastic ones x
LikeLike