This cloth bookmark is sweet, simple, and a great package topper. This would be a wonderful present for friends and family for Valentine's Day. It's a great project to do with fun fabric from the remnants bin at the craft store or with scraps you have at home! I made a couple and gave them to my sister and my best friend and they loved them! I have already decided to make more for some other wonderful people.
I originally stumbled upon this when I was looking for some kind of cute way to embellish a cloth bookmark on Pinterest. I found Little Birdie Secrets' how-to suggesting them as a teacher gift. What a great idea!
These do require sewing, but it is really very little, very simple sewing. Cutting out, sewing, and assembling each bookmark probably took me about 45 minutes. A big chunk of the time was spent making the cloth flower though.
You will need:
- 2 coordinating pieces of cloth
- Featherweight fusible interfacing
- One button
- Thread
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
Start by choosing the fabric you would like to make your bookmark and which you would like to be the flower. Cut a 4.5x8" piece of the bookmark pattern. Cut the same size of fusible interfacing and follow the directions that came with your interfacing to attach the two together. Trim any excess fabric or interfacing from the edges. It's okay if you have to trim a bit off, I have made the fabric size a little larger with this in mind.
Fold your fabric in half, interfacing side out and fabric in. Now, using any color thread, sew the bookmark together using standard 3/8" seam size. Sew the bookmark up, leaving one short end open and the edge perpendicular to it should be sewn until about 1/4" to the open end. After you sew the bookmark (don't forget to backstitch!), clip the corner and turn the bookmark right side out through the short end you left unstitched.
Now it's time to press your bookmark and prepare to do a topstitch, which will close up the end you left open. When you press your bookmark, turn in the fabric on the open end about 1/4". Pressing the fabric down will mean that you don't need to pin in, which would be difficult with such a small piece. Plus, it will make the edge much cleaner! After pressing your bookmark, put a topstitch on it. If you want to use a decorative stitch, feel free too. This topstitch is mostly decorative except for the small part where it seals the end.
Hooray! You made the bookmark. Now time for the flower to go on top. Plug in your hot glue gun to heat up! Next, take a piece of fabric, folded in half (like it is right off the bolt, with the two rough ends together) and cut a strip about 1/2" wide right off the end, from the fold down to the rough edge. Unfold. At one end, tie a knot, and place a dab of glue on it. Begin twisting the fabric and wrapping the twisted fabric around the knot. I wrapped mine very tightly, doing a dab of glue every 1/2" or so. Experiment with how tight or loose you want to make the fabric for the flower. Once the flower is the size you would like, or when you only have about 1" of fabric left, take the spare fabric and hot glue it on to the bottom of the flower. Doing this will keep your flower from unraveling or losing its shape, so don't be afraid to put a fair amount of glue (as long as it doesn't seep out of the sides).
Next, you have the option of hot gluing your button down to the center of the flower, or hand-sewing it through the center. On the bookmark with the brown flower, I sewed the button on (you can see the thread). On the bookmark with the blue flower, I glued it on (no thread). Other then the visible thread there was no big difference, other than that the sewn on button is less likely to fall off. After you attached your button, hot glue your flower to your bookmark with a circle of glue and you are finished.
Whether you are making this for yourself or a loved one, I hope you have fun!
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