Sewing fabric bookmarks is a great way to add a personalized touch to your favorite books. With just a few supplies and some simple steps, you can easily make unique bookmarks out of fabric and selvage.
Decide the width and length of your fabric bookmarks and cut the back fabric according to these measurements.
Cut the interfacings 1/2" smaller than the fabric strip. The images in this tutorial don't show this size as I used lightweight interfacing. After taking these photos I realized medium weight or heavy weight interfacings work better. So for my second bookmark I used medium weight interfacing plus a layer of batting, all cut 1/2" smaller than the fabrics. I am much more pleased with this second bookmark in terms of stiffness and durability.
Start by preparing your selvedges and make a strip of fabric in the size you cut the backing fabric. You can use my methods in this tutorial. There are 2 options: sew the selvages together first then add interfacing or fuse the selvages directly to interfacing and trim to create the strip in the size you want.
Interface the back fabric. If you decided to use batting too, use double sided interfacing and sandwich it between the fabric and the batting then press well to adhere.
Fold the ribbons in half and sew to the long edges of the front piece (the selvage strip) with 1/8" seam allowance.
Place the selvage strip right side up and top with the backing fabric wrong side up. Pin the two strips together.
Round the corners to your liking. You can opt for leaving the corners pointy but I personally have a soft spot for round corners.
Sew the two strips of fabrics together with 1/4" allowance, leaving a 2" gap in the seam for turning the bookmarks right side out.
Turn the fabrics right side out, push the corners out and smooth the seams out.
Push the gap inside and press well.
If you created the selvage strip by fusing them to the interfacing, now it's the right time to sew decorative stitches to the selvage seams.
If you opted for sewing the selvages together first then fused the strip to the interfacing you need to top stitch the entire bookmark at this step.
Additionally you can run parallel stitches all over the bookmark to give the selvage strips more durability. If you opted for the method where you create the selvage strip by fusing selvage to interfacing, skip this step as you already added durability through the decorative stitches.