Friday, August 27, 2010

Selvage Bookmark

Here's my Selvage Bookmark that began with this lovely pile of scraps. I finished it late last night and intended to photograph it in natural light today but the day was just too busy. Now it's very late and this is the best I can get in my sewing room after midnight.  **Just swapped out the picture for a better one.
 
 

Here's the story of how it came to be:

I have a mother who knows I love pretty things and sent me a little surprise package recently. She's always tucking in little things she'll know I'll like or use. Needles, thread, a recipe, a fat quarter, a magazine, a handful of scraps. So this latest package just happened to have strings of scrap fabric to keep the stack of magazines from sliding around and they just happen to be in a line of fabric we both love (Fresh Cottons by Fig Tree Quilts). I knew I had to make something with them!

I remembered that Jacquie had a selvage tutorial on her blog and thought I'd start from there. I discovered that her selvages were no smaller than an inch and had at least 1/4 inch of pattern showing above the selvage. My scraps were much smaller. I think the largest piece was about 3/4 of an inch total and not much pattern above the selvages. But I thought if I alternated a selvage with a printed fabric strip it might look similar. 
This 5x5 square was the result. I thought I'd make a pincushion for my sister. But the more I inspected I realized that my seam allowances just weren't deep enough. I was afraid it might split open and I'd never hear the end of walnut shells spread across my sisters house! So I thought for a day or so about what I could come up with that wouldn't stress out my seams. I know Viv loves to read so I dreamed up a bookmark. 

Scraps + Scrapbookpaper + Sewing Machine + Adhesive + Button = Cute Bookmark for Viv. I'm sure she won't see this for a while since she's chin deep in teaching at the moment.

It took some trial and error. The big discovery was that I needed to leave the foundation paper on the back as I sewed it to the heavy scrapbook paper. Otherwise it stretched in the direction I was sewing.




Here's the back. Gotta love Basic Grey. (Did you know they make paper? Did you know scrapbook paper has selvages too?!)

And Mom, if you are reading this, I have enough to make one for you too!

5 comments:

Nancy said...

I love this. The colors are so pretty and it is just right for a bookmark.

Shea said...

Such a cute idea! Thanks for giving your tips, too.

Michelle said...

That's great -- what a neat idea for using just a few selvages.

Charlestongrl said...

As the proud owner of this bookmark I have to say it is as cute in person as it is in the picture...and sturdy too. I dropped it in the bathtub (where I get all my reading done) and it didn't phase it....lol I about died but it took a lickin and kept on tickin

Melissa said...

LOL! I'm so glad it made it through a dip in the tub!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails