Make a Fabric Bookmark to Practice Straight Seams

A fabric bookmark is small enough to finish without a complicated cutting plan, but long enough to show whether your stitching stays parallel to an edge. Keep the first one plain. Ribbon tails, tassels and thick decoration can wait until you have a flat bookmark that closes comfortably inside a book.

The exercise here uses two rectangles and no filling. Its dimensions are an original practice layout, not a tested commercial pattern. Choose inexpensive, stable woven scraps that you can press according to their care requirements. A very thick fabric makes the short ends harder to turn and adds bulk between pages.

Cut a matched pair

Cut two rectangles, each three inches wide and nine inches long. With a quarter-inch seam allowance, the sewn outline will be approximately 2.5 by 8.5 inches before any small loss from turning the fabric. Mark the top if the print has a direction. Check that the two pieces match before stacking them together. Contrasting front and back fabrics can make the two sides easier to identify while turning.

Lay the rectangles right sides together. On one long edge, mark a two-inch opening near the middle, away from both corners. Mark the quarter-inch seam line near the opening ends and corners if that helps you see where to stop. Keep the opening generous enough to turn the bookmark without pulling on a few stitches.

Sew around the perimeter, leaving the opening

Begin at one end of the marked opening and stitch away from it, securing the start as your machine instructions describe. Follow the quarter-inch allowance around the short end and along the opposite long side. Remove pins before they reach the needle, and let the machine feed the fabric rather than pulling it from behind.

Continue around the second short end and stop at the other opening mark. Secure that end, too. For each corner, use your machine's stated pivoting procedure so the layers stay aligned. If you overshoot a corner, stop and correct it rather than rounding the turn in a hurried arc. Leave the marked gap completely unsewn.

Turn without forcing the corners

Inspect the stitching while the bookmark is still inside out. A missed layer or a large change in seam allowance is easier to repair now. If corner allowances need reducing, trim conservatively without cutting the stitches. Do not assume that trimming almost to the thread will produce a stronger or neater corner.

Turn the rectangle through the gap a little at a time. Use a blunt turning aid gently if necessary, not scissors or a sharp pencil pushed hard into the corners. Work the edges into place with your fingers. A slightly soft corner is preferable to a hole created while trying to make it perfectly pointed.

Close the gap with an even edge stitch

Fold the opening's raw edges inward by the same quarter-inch allowance as the adjacent seam. Check that the two folded edges meet evenly and that no raw fabric peeks out. Press within the fabric's limits, keeping your fingers away from the iron. Hold the opening closed with a suitable temporary method before stitching it.

Sew around the turned bookmark close enough to the edge to catch both folds at the opening. Choose the distance by looking at that opening, not by copying a decorative distance that misses its underside. Inspect both faces after a short section. If one fold escapes, repair the opening rather than adding several wandering rows over it.

Let a book judge the thickness

Slide the finished bookmark between a few pages and close the book normally. It should not require a bulky knot or ornament to stay useful. Look for loose threads, an unclosed gap or a hard lump at a corner. Keep the first piece as a sewing sample if its thickness makes it less pleasant to use.

Janome's fabric bookmark project offers a different, corner-shaped version. Try a new shape later rather than treating that tutorial as the cutting plan for this rectangle. For now, compare the two long stitched edges and choose one thing to improve on the next bookmark: alignment, turning or catching the opening evenly.