I receive daily updates from several blogs that I follow, and yesterday I got one from MaryJanesandGoloshes with a tutorial for no-slip bookmarks. Â I have found that Ryder loves to carry around books… MY books… the ones I’m currently reading. Â So I’ve had to forego using traditional bookmarks and resort to folding down the corner of the page I’m on. Â Otherwise, the bookmark falls out, and I’m forced to search for the last page I read. Â Major bummer! Â Needless to say, a creation like this definitely caught my attention. Â Plus, it’s so cute, and seemed so easy I just couldn’t resist. Â Her tutorial is pretty vague, but I tend to just “wing it” anyway. Â Here’s what I did…
Materials:
1 length of ribbon
1 pretty button
1 ponytail holder
embroidery thread, needle
JoAnn Fabric was having a huge weekend sale, and I was already planning on going to gather materials for the million other projects I have on tap. Â So I figured I could look for the supplies while I was there. Â Luckily for me, everything I needed was 50% off! Â I wanted to try to make a few bookmarks so I could have one, and give some away as gifts. Â I bought one full spool of ribbon, and found six really beautiful buttons that would all coordinate with the ribbon. Â I already had all the other supplies, so this was a very inexpensive project for me. Â 🙂
I chose two different size books from the shelf to try to determine how long to make the ribbon… I settled on approximately 16″. Â As it turns out, I was able to use the entire spool of ribbon, and make exactly six bookmarks… totally coincidental.
First, I folded one end of the ribbon over and stitched across to create a finished edge. Â Then I looped the same end around the ponytail holder and stitched it down, as close the ponytail holder as my presser foot would allow me to get. Â I went over it a couple of times just to add a little strength since it will be pulled on a bit.
Next, I threaded a needle with embroidery floss (at “full-strength”… I didn’t pull it apart), and knotted the ends together. Â I ran a basting stitch approximately two inches from the end of the ribbon, and pulled tight to gather it up. Â Then I slid the button onto the thread, and fastened it to the ribbon, and tied a knot.
The last thing I did was trim the raw and of the ribbon just for decoration. Â You could use some sort of anti-fray glue if you wanted, but I didn’t.
It only took me about 45 minutes to create all six bookmarks. Â Now I just have to decide who to give them to! Â 🙂
Random notes… There are only four pictured because there are two each of the clear jewels. Â I did the turquoise one first, and happened to have turquoise thread in my machine already. Â It was kinda fun to have the contrasting thread… something to think about. Â Since I didn’t want to change my thread color every 30 seconds, I simply used black for the remaining five bookmarks. Â Also, it would be super-fun to use brightly colored and/or contrasting ponytail holders as well… but these were ones I already had in my stash so I put them to good use.