Quilty Bookmarks for the Avid Reader

This blog post comes with a free DIY Pillow Pattern. Click here to download the PDF.

Do you have a bunch of triangles sitting in your scrap-stash? You know, the ones you trimmed off from making quilt bindings, snowball corners, and Flying Geese, the waste method. How about some selvage? Or leftover binding that didn’t make the cut? If you feel like they’re sitting around waiting to be crafted into something useful, I’ve got an idea for you!

Materials
(8) Discarded triangles (each triangle must have one square corner with 2 adjacent sides at least 2 1/4″ long)
(1) Piece of discarded binding 10″ long and 2 1/2″ wide, pressed back open
(1) Piece of selvage 10″ long

1. Trim each triangle so that the square corner is 1 1/2″ tall when one adjacent edge is lined up with the 45 degree line. Flip the triangle over vertically and repeat by lining up the other adjacent edge with the 45 degree line.

2. Sew triangles together in a row. When lining up the edges RST, shift the matching corners by 1/4″ so that a seam allowance is available for each square corner.

3. Trim dog ears off both long edges, 1/4″ away from triangle points.

4. Make a tube: Sew the long sides of the triangle unit RST with the long sides of the binding strip. Because the binding strip is wider than the triangle unit, the extra fabric will need to be shifted over so that the 2nd edges match while sewing. Trim the newly-formed tube along the short edges so that the length of the binding strip matches that of the triangle unit.

5. Send the length of the piece of selvage down through the tube. If you use a clip at the end of the selvage, it will serve as weight that will help pass it through.

6. With the selvage sticking out 1/4″ at one end, sew the end of that tube closed while making sure that there is an even amount of binding fabric on both sides of the triangle unit.

7. Turn the tube inside-out by pulling on the extra selvage on the open end of the tube.

8. Press the Triangle-side of the bookmark flat, making sure there is an even amount of binding fabric serving as a border on both sides of the bookmark.

9. Tuck in the raw edges at the bottom end of the bookmark, and sew a top-stitch along the edge of the entire bookmark.