These instructions are designed as a step by step guide in making our corner bookmarks set. We assume that you have a basic level of understanding of both machine embroidery and basic machine embroidery applique.
Each bookmark comprises two embroidery files, part a and part b. Part a should be completed first as it will be incorporated into the part b file. Each design is a little different – so there may be extra applique or needles in each design. Please refer to the text charts included for each file for more detailed information on that to do for each needle. These instructions walk though in detail design 10.
The first step of any project is to make sure you have the right materials. Suggested materials include:
Firstly, you will complete part a of the design. You will need to hoop two layers of stabilizer as the project is stitched directly onto stabilizer. At least two layers of stabilizer is suggested as the stitching can cut through the stabilizer.
Stitch out the first needle, this will be the placement line for the upper part of the bookmark. Lay down your applique fabric right side up on top of this area. Make sure the applique fabric completely covers the area, and you can lightly spray the wrong side of the fabric and smooth it down to avoid wrinkles if you like.
Stitch out the following needle which is the cutting line. It will look like this image.
Neatly trim the fabric up to the cutting line. We use small curved nail scissors to get in nice and close.
Stitch out the following needle, this the placement line for the hair. Lay your applique fabric fort he hair on top of this (again, you may use a light spray of adhesive if you like).
When we first made the mask, we made the fatal mistake of laying ribbon (we used ribbon as we did not have any elastic on hand) and had the ends pointing inwards. SILLY mistake! So please ignore the ends of the ribbon as they tucked in towards the facemask. But if you use ribbon instead of elastic for your facemask, this picture illustrates pinning the ribbon top of the face mask to ensure that it is kept neatly out of the way for the application of any batting and the fabric for the back of the facemask.
Again, trim away excess fabric. Continue with the remaining needles in the design which include the qpplique eyes, and facial features and a satin stitch line to finish off the diagonal and a decorative back stitch over the satin line.
Once completed, your design will look this. See how the applique stitching did cut a little though the stabilizer. This is okay as you are able to detach the design from the stabilizer.
So we then trimmed the design away. In this particular case – we left a little stabilizer on the corner. After doing a few of the designs we tried a few different things. Rather than leaving any stabilizer on the corners, we tried leaving a little fabric on the expose corner (ie but on diagonal line of course). This did allow for a bit of forgiveness when adding part a to part b. You may like to do this if you are worried about the placement of the design in part b. In the end, I ended up leaving no exposed stabilizer or fabric and found this quite easy to place the design in part b. But leaving a little fabric instead of the stabilizer (as opposed to this picture), you may find it easier and more forgiving later on. Now, onto part b of the design
Load up part b of the design. Again hoop 2 layers of tearaway.
Stitch out needle 1 which is the placement line for the back part of the book mark. Lay your applique fabric on top of this (using spray adhesive if you like) and stitch out needle two which is the cutting line. Again, trim right up to the cutting line.
Once trimmed, your design will look like this. Continue with needles 3 through 5 which is the applique pink inner ears (which again follows the steps of placement line, cutting line and applique finish stitch).
We are now onto needle 6. This is the step where you place part a of the design into part a. Carefully line up part a onto part b as displayed. Make sure your cutting lines for the top and right for part a and b line up and the diagonal runs corner to corner. Stitch out needle 6 which will attach part a to part b. If you did leave any fabric or stabilizer (see part a – we left stabilizer but recommended a little fabric rather than stabilizer might be more forgiving/leave room for a little error), then once needle 6 is stitched, gently remove the excess with your scissors.
Needle 7 is the cutting line for the fabric for the back of the bookmark. So before stitching this you will want to remove your hoop and gently turn it over. You will see where you need to place your applique fabric for the back of the bookmark as seen in this picture. Again, you will lie your backing fabric right side up here (when put back on the embroidery machine, the right side is facing the bottom of your embroidery machine. See also following picture.
We personally just floated the fabric (by carefully holding the fabric in place as we turned the hoop back over and carefully placing on the machine. But it would be best if you are not confident doing this to spray adhesive on wrong side of the fabric which allows the farbric to stay in place as you return the hoop to the machine.
Stitch out needle 7, remove the hoop again and turn over and trim the back fabric to the cutting line as per the image. Return the hoop to the machine. Then stitch out needles 8 and 9 which is the satin stitch finishing stitch and decorative back stitch. For these two needles, we filled the bobbin with matching embroidery thread as this stitching shows on the back of the bookmark.
Once this is done, this is what you have. Gently remove the completed book mark from the stabilizer. You may find you have a few little strands of stabilizer showing. We personally ran the blade of our scissors over these (not cutting the stitching or cutting – just running the blade over) to tidy these up. You can also color them in with a matching sharpie if you like.
Finished front of book mark.
Finished back of book mark.
Bookmark in use. We hope you enjoyed marking these gorgeous book marks. They are great as gifts and stock stuffers. They are great fun to make and see come to life!
