Monday's Marvel: Upcycled Denim Bookmarks: A Tutorial

Boy, did I have fun making these this weekend! These earth-friendly marvels are for MayDay swag bags - the first fifty attendees at MayDay get a free bag of goodies! They are SO easy to make. If you 1. can't make it to MayDay, 2. don't make it to MayDay soon enough to get a swag bag, or 3. want bunches more for your loved ones, here's how to make your own:

1. Get some used, but clean, denim. Use old jeans, pre-spandex if you can find them so the fabric doesn't stretch a lot. Utility fabric or home decor fabric would work just as well. Your piece of denim should be between 6 and 8 inches in height and 2" by however many bookmarks you want. In other words, if you want five 6" high bookmarks, you need a piece of denim 6" by 10" (2" x 5 bookmarks = 10").

Step 1: Old jeans

2. Cut a piece of cotton fabric and a piece of batting the same size as the denim.

Steps 1 and 2: Denim, cotton, and batting cut to size

3. Adhere fusible webbing to the wrong side of both the cotton fabric and the denim.

Step 3: I like to use Heat n Bond fusible webbing, but any kind will work.

Step 3: Follow the webbing manufacturer's directions
to fuse webbing to fabric.

4. Make a quilt sandwich: cotton backing fabric (with fusible side up) + batting + denim (with fusible side down.

Step 4: Quilt sandwich

5. Using an iron, fuse all three together - you will probably have to iron on both sides of the sandwich the be sure that both the cotton fabric and the denim are fused to the batting.

6. Quilt away! You could skip this step if you wanted to. It doesn't alter the function, it just add beauty.

Step 6: Random all-over quilting stitches

Step 6: Completed quilting

7. Measure and cut at every 2 inches to make your individual bookmarks.

Step 7: Cutting individual bookmarks

8. Finish the edges with a zig zag or other decorative stitch.

Step 8: Zigzagged edges on finished bookmarks

To make a no-sew version, make sure to use ultrahold fusible webbing in step 3 and skip steps 6 and 8. Have fun!