I receive daily updates from several blogs that I follow, and yesterday I got one from MaryJanesandGoloshes with a tutorial for no-slip bookmarks.  I have found that Ryder loves to carry around books… MY books… the ones I’m currently reading.  So I’ve had to forego using traditional bookmarks and resort to folding down the corner of the page I’m on.  Otherwise, the bookmark falls out, and I’m forced to search for the last page I read.  Major bummer!  Needless to say, a creation like this definitely caught my attention.  Plus, it’s so cute, and seemed so easy I just couldn’t resist.  Her tutorial is pretty vague, but I tend to just “wing it” anyway.  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.  So I figured I could look for the supplies while I was there.  Luckily for me, everything I needed was 50% off!  I wanted to try to make a few bookmarks so I could have one, and give some away as gifts.  I bought one full spool of ribbon, and found six really beautiful buttons that would all coordinate with the ribbon.  I already had all the other supplies, so this was a very inexpensive project for me.  🙂

I chose two different size books from the shelf to try to determine how long to make the ribbon… I settled on approximately 16″.  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.  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.  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.  I ran a basting stitch approximately two inches from the end of the ribbon, and pulled tight to gather it up.  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.  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.  Now I just have to decide who to give them to!  🙂

Random notes… There are only four pictured because there are two each of the clear jewels.  I did the turquoise one first, and happened to have turquoise thread in my machine already.  It was kinda fun to have the contrasting thread… something to think about.  Since I didn’t want to change my thread color every 30 seconds, I simply used black for the remaining five bookmarks.  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.