How To Sew Fabric Bookmarks with Felt Circles

This post contains affiliate links. Thanks for your support. Are you here for easy bookmarks? You'll want to see these too:

• Easiest Corner bookmarks to sew
• 10 Cute And Easy Bookmarks Anyone Can Make
• Diy Paper Bookmarks - For Kids
• Free Template - Folded Felt Flowers - you can attach these to a plain bookmark and make it pretty!

How To Sew Fabric Bookmarks

First, for those of you who like video tutorials, I've made a video slide-show just to make it easier for you. Check it out:

Supplies

You'll need:

• a 9 by 6 inch (=23cm x 15cm) large scrap of fabric
• a piece of fusible felt interfacing: 2 ½ inch x 8 ¼ inch (=6.5cm x 21cm) - i.e. in the finished bookmark size to avoid bulk on the stitching line)
• a few felt scraps in your favorite colors
• sewing machine or needle, pins, sewing thread, scissors
• optional: your free template with a few additional shapes to use - see below!

Bookmark Finished Size: 2 inch wide, 8 ¼ inch tall (= 5 x 21 cm).

Your FREE Template:

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Sign up for my newsletter and get access to the full template once you confirm your subscription!

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If you’re already a subscriber, you can access the template with the password in each newsletter, in the resource library:

What you get:
- the basic bookmark template (although you can simply cut one using a rotary cutter and a cutting mat.) ...BUT
- what might be more helpful, are the 4 designs for felt cutouts I added, each in 3 sizes that match the bookmark template size:

• paisley, 
• 5-point star 
• circles
• 4-point star

Very handy for when you want to add diversity to your unique bookmarks!

Tutorial: How To Make Fabric Bookmarks

1) Cut circles out of the felt colors you've selected for your bookmark.

CIRCLE SIZES: none should be larger in diameter than 2 inch (so it will fit to the background fabric). The template has 2 inch, 1.5 inch and 1 inch in diameter, but you don't need to stick to that dimensions.

Distribute them over one half of the fabric as you see fit. No rules here, have fun!

2) Pin the felt to hold the circles to hold them in place. You'll remove pins as you sew.

(I love using my 'birdie' pins for projects like this one. They are long (2"), thin and they lay flat, so pinning felt is a breeze!)

3) Select matching or contrasting threads (your choice!). Start sewing in the middle of a felt circle and work your way towards the outer edge, making a few circles. No need for any precision here!


Sewing Tip: DO YOUR FELT CIRCLES OVERLAP?
What you need to make sure is you sew the lower-layer (i.e. the larger) circles first. You'll sew the top circles over those.

4) A close-up: as you see, I just sewed, keeping the threads unfinished. In the end, I pulled all the threads from the front to the back side and tied knots to secure stitches.

If it's too messy for you, you can finish each seam separately, off course.

5) After you've secured the stitches, fold under the seam allowance along both long edges of the fabric. Press.

Here comes the easy-sew trick. Follow along:

6) Unfold the center fold and re-fold it inside-out – see the image above.

7) Stitch over both short ends, using the ⅜" (=1 cm) seam allowance.

8) Trim the corners to reduce bulk.

9) Turn right side out.

To push out the corners, use a point turning tool or something similar, like a chopstick, a knitting needle, or simply a pencil. Don't use anything sharp since it could make holes in your fabric.

Now's the time to press the fabric for a nice and crisp finish.

10) One long side is still open. One step more and you've made it!

11) Edge-stitch around the entire bookmark. This way, you'll stitch the opening closed. Done!

It makes a great sewing project for kids, too. As an option, you can sew a few fabric bases for the bookmark (see steps 5 to 11 only) - and leave it to the kids to hand-stitch the felt circles. It makes an amazing kids-sewing project AND a great motivation booster for reading.

Save the bookmark sewing project for later:

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Or ...go straight to one of my currently most popular PDF patterns - the ZIP Pocket Coin purse:

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