Making an embroidered monogram bookmark out of fabric scraps was (supposed to be) a quick one-day project, but it morphed to take over most of a weekend. It still makes a decently quick little project, and will make a lovely personalized addition to a birthday gift package I’m putting together for a friend. I find the biggest challenge in doing this sort of project, where you see something online and think “hey, I could do that!”, is the endless series of design decisions. Fabric, size, colour, letter style, floss palette, design layout — I agonize at every step. So I thought I’d share my agony here!
I’d seen the idea for quick and cute embroidered bookmarks that sit on the corner of a page discussed in a few embroidery forums. They are often made of felt, but the only felt I have on hand is rather thin and uninspiring. I thought I’d try using two kinds of fabric from my scrap box – the top layer, for embroidering, is a nice crisp cotton like a quilting cotton, and the bottom layer is a stiffer almost canvas fabric. My friend likes pink, the purple would offset pink embroidered flowers, and the oatmeal canvas seemed a decent pairing. Step one, after rifling through my scrap box for 30 minutes, nailed down.
The next decision was harder. I googled various fonts and monograms (and learned that in fact, this is simply an initial, not a monogram) and embroidered letters. I settled on a block sort of capital that I could fill with lazy daisies and French knots. Easy!
I really struggle with pattern transfer. I’ve tried tracing, lightboxes, freezer paper, sticky solvy, free-handing, water-soluble pens, water-soluble pencils, erasable pencils, chalk — I don’t love any of it. I had been planning to just free-hand the letter directly onto the fabric, but I happened to have a nearby 15 year old who is an extraordinary artist with a remarkable talent for lettering (my youngest kiddo, Lucas) and I had barely finished describing my idea to him when he sketched out my letter in about 3 minutes flat. So if you struggle with pattern transfer, I highly recommend adding an artistic teenager to your community!
Hurdle number 3 was the floss palette. I knew I wanted pink for the main colour. After swapping various pinks, fuschias, violets, purples and lilacs in and out, wandering over to yellows and peaches for a while and then scratching them back off the list, I ended up with a deep pink, a medium pink, a cream, and a deep green for the flower centres. I think they work quite well with the deep purple.
The actual embroidery was the simplest and most straight-forward part of the process. I took some inspiration from this seller on Etsy, although I went with a simpler line. I’d originally stitched the thin parts of the letter in backstitch, but my stitches are still wobbly and uneven (it’s almost embarrassing that I’m interested in sashiko, given how uneven my stitches always are) but I find whipping the stitches at the end evens them out considerably. A little extra daisy on either side for balance and interest, and the embroidery part was done in less than a couple of hours.
I’d been thinking about the back of the embroidery, all the loose threads and knots, catching the corners of pages when the bookmark is used, so I added some stabilizer to the back of the purple fabric when the stitches were complete. And then ironed it at higher and higher temperatures as it seemed unwilling to stick. And I realized that the letter was bigger than it should have been and where it had been sketched and stitched left me little wiggle room for margins when I went to cut the top layer triangle.
Attaching the top corner layer to the bottom corner layer set me down another tree of decisions. Should the bottom layer be square or a triangle? I started with a square, decided it was too big and bulky, and cut it to a triangle, but didn’t leave myself with enough room and ended up with a triangle with two slightly clipped corners. I am not a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination – close enough is good enough.
The final product is almost comically large. I hope my friend reads a lot of coffee-table sized books! But I am very happy with the embroidery itself and the concept. Next time, and there will be a next time because I want to work out the kinks in this process, I will aim for a smaller letter, and perhaps something with a flourishing scroll instead of a block letter. I may seek out some better quality felt, too, because although the canvas and cotton pairing work, I think this could be simplified.
Have you ever made a bookmark like this? Any tips or tricks or advice to share?