Remember last week when I lamented the sad fate of my pitiful bookmarks??
Your comments helped me so much....and in fact saved this project.
I was bummed enough to consider Susan's idea of building a bonfire and burning the bookmarks.
I loved Barbara and Charlotte's idea to make the bookmarks into cards. Luckily I didn't rush right out to buy card stock and accouterments.
Because the first advice I followed was to aggressively shrink the bookmarks as recommended by Susan from Thrums, Delighted Hands, Barbara, Lady of the Loom and Sara from Fabric N Fiber Fanatic.
To secure the fringe before washing, I zigzagged a piece of fabric to the loose threads. It worked fine, but I was curious if you know of a better technique.And it worked!!!
I washed them on the delicate cycle with warm water, then dried them in the dryer with a few towels and a chenille scarf on warm. I pressed them on the rayon setting after they were dry.
They shrunk enough to tighten up and hold together as bookmarks without giant holes.
This isn't my most successful project ever - mostly because my idea that I could combine red and green in this way wasn't my best idea. (And a bazillion people told me that beforehand, but I still had to try it to be sure!)
Front and back views
I think these bookmarks will be fine tucked into Christmas story books as gifts next Christmas.
Thank you so much for your great advice in the comments on my original bookmark post! I'm so happy to have 4 bookmarks to give away, rather than a sad chain of 5 malformed bookmarks cluttering up my Completed Projects notebook.
Not to mention that it's still January, and now my gift bin is getting fuller!
Late for Christmas 2009 = early for Christmas 2010!
11 comments:
I have a woven bookmark. It's very important to me and keeps my place in the daily meditation guide that I subscribe to. It was a gift. How lucky are your recipients.
Hey! Great save!
You didn't have much to lose by trying and its super that it tightened up. One commenter said to keep one for the record and I would agree but now that can be a before *and* after.
The method you used to secure the ends was a good one. I can't think of a better other than weaving with scrap yarn and sew the edge. Then after, remove scrap yarn and press. Trim to desired length with a rotary cutter.
I quite often will hemstitch with a much finer yarn (sometimes sewing thread) in a densely packed warp. It helps reduce bulk.
As for the bonfire: I have burnt a project. Approx 100 grams (3.5 oz) of silk actually. I had been dyeing silk warps and was now dyeing the weft yarns. I forgot that you are not supposed to boil silk... and I did. It was not pretty and so it was tossed onto the flames. Gone but not forgotten.
:) Susan
That's great, congratulations! The bookmarks are lovely, and now you have aleady five Christmas presents.
glad you tried to save them - they turned out great!
Sue, the bookmarks are gorgeous! As the saying goes - where there's a will there's a way - you found a way!
Eva :)
Thanks for giving us the rest of the story! These turned out just so much nicer than expected!! Isn't it nice to be amazing and amazed by what we do?!
I'm so glad those bookmarks worked out! But I'm extremely jealous about how many of next year's Christmas presentas you are completing!
How awesome is that!!!! You really did save them and they look great!!
Thanks for the bookmark feedback! I'm still so surprised that they worked out OK.
Thanks for the hem-stitching tips Susan. I wasn't happy with how bulky my stitching was....but I thought it was bad technique. I didn't think about using skinnier yarn, but thread would have been a great idea in this case!
I went back to my project notebook and scribbled out the big FAIL I had written at the top of the page about these bookmarks. Phew! That was a close one!
Sue
I think these will work out just fine. You'll make some recipients quite happy.
It all comes out in the wash. (And the dryer. And the ironing.) That's my motto.
So glad you were able to work this out. The bookmarks look very festive tucked in their books. I know the recipients will be thrilled to have them.
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