2020 Advent Calendar Day 5 – A Fabric Heart Bookmark

The fifth window of our 2020 Advent Calendar opens a fabric bookmark with the shape of a heart. Scroll down for your own free template to make a quick gift in time for Christmas or another important date! While we’re using a bright red starry print, you can obviously pick anything your recipient would love between the pages of their latest read <3

Supplies

To make a similar-sized project you’ll need:

• For the heart:
  • Fabric: any thin enough not to create too much bulk between a book – I used our Star Bright in Dark Red colour by Andover Fabrics from our shop, two 4″ squares and one 3″ (or two 5″ squares and one 3,75″)
  • Thread: sewing thread to match your fabric type – I used a 50wt white thread by Aurifil and their products are coming soon to our shop!
  • Pattern: tutorial by sew many ways with template included, or for two heart sizes 4″ and 5″ our own alternative (intended for your personal use)
• Tools:
  
  • Sewing machine
  • Scissors: to cut out heart
  • Cardboard (optional), paper and printer: for template, print at 100 % and check 2 cm or 1″ test square for accuracy
  • Pointy tool

Directions

Get your fabrics and chosen template ready, follow the tutorial linked to above, clip seam allowances and push carefully all sides when turning the heart inside out.

The tutorial by sew many ways is great for even absolute beginners in that it is picture-heavy throughout. If you feel uncertain about the relatively small pieces, test with our 5″ heart first as there’s more to work with.

Just be sure to go further in when cutting off the triangle in order to have a larger hole for turning pieces. Test how far you can go: fold a triangle out of the smaller square and be sure not to cut off a larger piece as you want that edge to remain closer to the pointy tip of the heart and folded square to cover the hole. This is how the “pocket” looks when finished:

The bookmark in action, not fully in place yet:

And in its place, hugging the corner:

And finally a quote by Karen Young of USA, whose profile in Grace Bonney’s “In the Company of Women” is inspiring for me as an entrepreneur:

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to prepare for the long haul, the rise and fall, and let neither define your sense of self.”

24 Calendar Windows

Find all blog posts of our calendar in this gallery:

 

Will you make your own bookmark? Please show us on Instagram using our #senttijatuuma hashtag!