Free bookmark Pattern

Today I've got a free pattern for you! It's a bookmark design from my newest book, Doodle Stitching: Embroidery and Beyond. It uses a technique called Cutwork. Cutwork embroidery involves cutting windows into your fabric and reinforcing them with special stitches. If you haven’t tried Cutwork before, it is easy to learn using felt. This bookmark is designed to adjust to fit books from about 7- 10 inches, but you can alter the pattern to fit any sized book.

What You Need:

2 ½ x 12 inch piece, and 2- 2 ½ x 5 inch pieces of green or orange felt

pieces of  Velcro, 3 inches long

Embroidery floss

one skein of light green 772 or one skein each of aqua 3817, 

orange 3853, yellow 3855

Stitches:

Overcast Stitch, Stem Stitch, Satin Stitch

Instructions:

1. Print and Trace the bookmark template (below) onto the large piece of felt and cut it out.

2. Use the Overcast Stitch around the holes. First stitch a row of Running stitches around the cutting pattern, then cut out the center piece of fabric. The hole will usually end up larger than the space you cut, so keep your cutting 1/8 inch inside the pattern line. Starting at the back of the fabric, bring your needle and floss up at the edge of the hole, down through the hole over the edge, and back up again right next to the first stitch. Repeat along the edge, completely covering the raw edge of felt.

3. Finish the design with the Stem and Satin Stitches.

4. Stitch the short pieces of felt to either end of the long piece, overlapping them ¼ inch.

5. Sew two rows of Velcro to either end of the bookmark. Wrap the bookmark around your favorite book and secure the Velcro in the back.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial! Try out cutwork on any of your embroidery projects, I promise you'll love it. :)

xo aimee