Bookmark This!

It seems that I work all the time now.  My job is full-time, Peaches goes to school about 20 minutes away and I still take care of the house and the cooking.  I've found myself a little down in the dumps but yesterday, I made a simple bag for Peaches' blocks and realized that I need to create something...anything to help my mental state.  

My journey out of the stay-at-home blues started with a mission to recreate Martha Stewart's crafts which eventually led me in all the right directions to start creating my own items for sale.  Now, I'm going back to that model and I'll be trying each of the following projects from this website:

http://crazylittleprojects.com/2014/08/quickandeasysewingprojects.html

And I'm also going to time them and see if they really are "sewable" in under the alloted time they state because you know I'm a stickler for those who brag about time and ease of projects (read: Martha Stewart).  

First Up - a "5-minute" bookmark that I plan to make for Peaches who is an avid reader and has graduated to books where she actually needs a bookmark.

Supplies:

• Scraps of fabric
• Small piece of elastic (hers was 1/2 inch wide but as she states really, most any width will do)
• Sewing machine

First I asked Peaches which fabric she wanted and let her know that she could have two so that it would be reversible.  After some careful coaching thought, she chose these two:

Fun fact - the first pennant flag that I ever made for Milla was with this fabric

I then sent her upstairs for her daily "quiet time."  Seriously, this kid went from sleeping 14 1/2 hours per day (including a 2 hour daily nap) to only 12 - 12 1/2 hours now that she's in kindergarten and gets home too late, so for the sake of everyone's sanity, she needs this quiet time. Plus, it's only for an hour which should give me plenty of time to make the bookmark.

I started the timer on my phone and cut out the fabric a little smaller than she did (3" by 9"). I then used a straight-stitch on my machine with the two right sides facing each other.  Of course I screwed up, and had one on the wrong side, but I stopped the timer since it wasn't fair that I was the idiot.  

After ripping the stitches (my seam ripper gets some serious usage), and a few profanities, I got started on the project again.

I then turned it inside out, pressed it flat and pressed under the edges so that I could sew in the elastic (seriously, if you want the step-by-step, check out the original: http://crazylittleprojects.com/2014/07/bookmarktutorial.html

After sewing in the elastic, it looked like this:

                           

And the timer that does not lie, said this:

Close, but no cigar my friend.  And I even HUSTLED.  

But me, being me, I had to personalize it for Peaches. Using my Silhouette Cameo, I cut out the words "Milla's" and "Book" on Heat Transfer Vinyl and made it a bookmark just for her.

Finished product - cute.  5 minutes?  Nope.  Would I do it again?  Probably not!

Front of bookmark (Milla's)

Back of bookmark