Book Marks

I've always loved felt.

I like how bright the colours are. I enjoy using it because there are no fiddly raw edges to tuck away. As long as you don't accidentally stretch it, you're going to have to go some way to completely mess up your project.

In fact, the very first thing I pinned when my dear sister introduced me to that delightful devil called Pinterest, was a selection of medallions made of felt, stacked on top of each other and decorated with beads and other sparklies.

I've been on a bit of a bookmark frenzy the last few days, looking for simple ideas that could be translated into child-friendly, easy-to-construct characters. I have had a whale of a time working on some plans. It's been so much fun playing around with little details and thinking up some more fun ways to incorporate the ideas that are threatening to spill out of my ears right now.

This bear bookmark is the first one I've made.

I had a moment when I was scouring the house looking for circular objects small enough to use as templates, when I grabbed a shot glass and a liqueur glass, and briefly thought that filling those with something alcoholic would be infinitely more fun that playing with felt and cotton.

But it was a very brief thought and I got myself back on track.

I used embroidery cotton as I found normal sewing cotton tended to get lost on the pile of the felt. Probably a good thing this worked out so well, because I must have a half million skeins of DMC threads of every shade under the sun. Sometimes the universe is kind, and once in a while, you even get to use all the goodies you have stockpiled just in case.

I chose not to use ribbon for this bookmark because I thought it may be too soft, so used a thin 19mm wide cotton twill instead. This worked incredibly well, but a word of caution, the twill frays like mad. I cut the webbing 30cm long, but you could definitely cut it shorter for a shorter book. The bear's face is a 4cm circle with the ears sticking up about 5mm. Sewing those little pink bits on was really very fiddly but makes for a nice touch.

I cut out the bear shape and added in a small bit of heavy cardboard between the bear and the backing, just to give it some extra strength. I'm not sure whether cardboard will stand up to frequent use. I think rigid plastic may be a better bet if this is going to be used by a bookworm child.

I'm not sure why, but the teddy bear just looked very masculine to me, so I decided to balance it out by putting an excessively girly, very pink, medallion on the other side. I think it looks lovely now.

I love the multi-layered look of the bear and medallion, it's quite 3D in real life.

All that fiddling around with glue and sewing beads onto felt worked up quite an appetite.

Cupcakes and tea fix many of the problems I deal with, and when those two things are paired with a good book, the world is a happier place.

Excuse me while I go make some felt cupcakes (zero fat, zero carb, zero sugar, and waistline friendly!) to show you later.