Pink and Black Fabric Bookmark
One lovely thing about my job is sometimes I get messages that are wonderful surprises. Today I'm going to reprint part of one here, because even though it came several months back, I still remember it fondly and it is timely for today's post.
"I purchased the fabric bookmark pattern recently and just couldn't stop sewing! I ended up with 70 and donated them to my local library's used book sale. They sold 40 at $5 each during one afternoon (all credited with your information). I sewed them with machine buttonholes instead of metal eyelets."
There are so many wonderful things going on in these 3 sentences--she made 70 bookmarks (blown away!!!), was kind enough to donate them to her library, and then the library sold so many right away.
The button hole mod is perfect too and good practice if you need to master the button hole on your machine--which is something I personally need to do. Maybe my next bookmark will have a button hole.
The pink and black bookmark above was my sewing project for yesterday and I ended up using several of my favorite sewing tools to make this--none of them are truly mandatory for making these--but since I used them it seemed like an a good chance for me to tell you more about them.
Hot Ruler
The ruler is a Hot Ruler from Clover and I've only had mine for a week, so this was my first time using this tool. I didn't order it from the shop at the link, but they have the best price on etsy for this ruler, and she has good feedback (be super careful shopping on etsy).
I posted a photo of this ruler to my Instragram feed a few days back and it got a number of positive comments. Take a look at what was said here.
This ruler was helpful in pressing a super straight crease for the bookmark. It's made from something non-slip, which was helpful. It really felt like it was firmly holding the fabric.
The bookmarks are super easy to make (someone did made 70!), so the ruler didn't dramatically improve the experience or outcome, but I'm glad I found a reason to try out my new Hot Ruler!
Straight Tailor's Awl
To start the hole for the eyelet, I used a Straight Tailor's Awl to poke a hole through the layers of the bookmark. The tips of a small pair of scissors works fine for this too, but the awl got me off to a good start.
Dritz Snap Pliers
I wrote about these pliers in this very long blog post about installing snaps. These can be used for a few different sizes of snaps, and also for eyelets. You just rotate the yellow plate around and it's ready to install your bookmark eyelet.
I don't have any of these pliers for sale right now, but you can find them on etsy here. These are also pretty widely available at fabric shops.
