Patchwork Bookmark Tutorial

What to do with lots of little fabric scraps? Turn them into a cute patchwork bookmark! This would be a cute gift to pop inside a card for an avid reader, or just to keep for yourself. Here's mine, which will soon be available for sale along with some others in my madeit.com.au shop, and here's how I made it.

You need: scissors, sewing machine, 10cm ribbon, and some fabric scraps. Non-stretchy cotton is best, I used pinwale cord.

1. First decide how wide you would like your bookmark, this will depend on the size of your scraps. My pieces were cut to about 6cm wide, which gave me a 4.5cm finished bookmark. Then cut out your scraps to this width. Different lengths are ok. Use a book to estimate the length.

2. Next, sew two of the pieces right sides together, and keep adding pieces until they are all together in a line. I added an extra piece to mine as the seams made the length too short.

3. Next press the seams open.

4. Cut a piece of 10cm ribbon, fold in half and attach to the top of the right side. Make sure the folded end is pointing down towards the bottom, it will turn up the right way in the next few steps. Sew about 3 or 4 lines of stitching to secure.

5. Lay the patchwork strip face down on larger scrap piece of fabric, which will become the back of the bookmark. My patchwork piece was too long so I just trimmed it a little to fit. Pin right sides together, then sew around the edge making sure the seams remain open. Do not sew the bottom end, this opening will be used to turn it the right way out.

6. Next, trim the corners, and also the edges, then turn inside out.

7. Iron flat, turning the bottom ends in. Then topstitch all the way around, close to the edge. And it's finished!