For those of you that have accumulated a few stitch markers or are planning to, here is a simple tutorial on how to make a fabric Stitch Marker Holder (actually a little mini quilt). A place to stash all of those beautiful stitch markers and have them right at your fingertips when you need them.
To get started you will need the following:
- Two pieces of fabric and one piece of thin quilt batting size 8-1/2″ x 12″. Your fabric can be matching or contrasting. I used Warm & Natural quilt batting.
- A piece of ribbon, shoestring, etc. approx 20″ long
- A coiless safety pin (these can be purchased at most craft stores)
The next step is to layer your fabrics. You will be making a “quilt sandwich”.
- Lay your batting on the bottom
- Place your two pieces of fabric right sides together – so that the back side of the fabric is facing you
- Lay your fabric on top of your quilt batting – pin these layers together all of the way around
If you have a foot for your sewing machine that feeds the top and bottom pieces of the fabrics at the same time, often called an “even feed foot” or “walking foot”, this is very helpful. I loosened my stitch width to a 3.0.
Start on one long side of the rectangle, somewhere around the middle of the side. Sew all the way around the rectangle until you are about 2″ from where you started. Make sure to backstitch at the beginning and the end. This will ensure that your stitches don’t come loose.
O.K. – almost there. Turn your work through the hole, so that the inside is now on the outside.
Once your work is turned – then you need to press with an iron. Make sure your open edges have their seams tucked to the inside when you press.
- Now all the hard part is done. You just have the finishing touches.
- Sew around the edges of your rectangle approximately 1/8″ from the edge all of the way around. This will finish off the opening that was left from turning your work and stabilize the rest of your little quilt.
- Now you need to find the middle of the width of your quilt sandwich. Mine was 4″. You are going to sew down the length of the quilt on this mark. This will effectively seperate your quilt in half. Make a small mark on your fabric. Set your little quilt on the sewing machine with the needle where you would start sewing at your mark.
- At this point I place a “sticky note” or tape a piece of paper on the sewing machine where the fabric rests. This gives you a “guide” point. It helps me keep my line straight. Sew on this line top to bottom.
- Almost done with the sewing! Your last sewing step is to take your ribbon and fold it in half, this will give you a crease line.
- With the ”outside” of your little quilt facing you, open the ribbon and sew the creased line to the bottom of the middle.
That’s it! See it wasn’t hard. I use coiless safety pins to hold my stitch markers in place. I put them on so all I have to do is open them to have access to my stitch markers.
Once you are done, just roll your Stitch Marker Holder from the top to the bottom and use your ribbon to tie around the roll. Done!
Enjoy – I hope you make some for yourself and your friends!
