HOW TO SEW A BOOKMARK

I teamed up with the wonderful team at Seasalt for this project, using remnants of their beautiful fabric. This easy-to-make, fabric bookmark makes a lovely gift and is a great way to use up fabric off-cuts you may have lying around.

You will need:

• Fabric – two rectangles of 8cm by 25cm per bookmark.

• If your fabric is lightweight, you’ll also need some interfacing (iron-on or sew in).

• Pins

• Scissors

• Tape measure

• Needle and thread (or a sewing machine)

• Iron and ironing board

• Ready-made tassel or yarn to make your own

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Select your fabric. Two contrasting pieces work best.

2. Cut your fabric into two rectangles measuring 8cm by 25cm.

3. If you are using interfacing because your fabric is quite thin, apply that to the reverse of the front fabric before you cut out the rectangle.

4. Place the two sides of your bookmark together with the reverse sides facing outwards. You will sew them together inside out.

5. Pin three edges of the fabric together. Leaving one of the short sides open.

6. Stitch along the three pinned sides, 1cm in from the edge. You can sew by hand or use a sewing machine.

7. Snip off the two top corners. This will give you a neater finish.

8. Turn the fabric right side out. Use a pencil to push the corners all the way out, so they’re nice and crisp. Press it down to make it smooth and flat.

9. Tuck in the bottom hem by about 1cm, so you have a clean finish. Then pin and press the bottom hem.

10. The next step is to add a tassel or pom-pom to the bottom if you are using one. You can use a ready-made tassel or make you own (see instructions for this in the video).

11. Slide your tassel into the open end of the bookmark.

12. Pin the final edge to hold the tassel in place. Then stitch up the bottom edge of the bookmark. If you do this with a machine, you’ll be able to see the stitching, so I prefer to do this bit by hand.

13. In order to stitch the bottom closed without seeing the stitches, use a ladder stitch, threading in and out on the fold. When you get to the tassel, add a couple of extra stitches either side, so it stays put.

14. You can either leave it as it is or add some personal touches. I’ve added words created using a Cricut machine and Easy Press.

Please share your makes with me, I love to see!

Happy making,

Kate xx