Birth Month Bookmark Poems - with Alternative Make Instructions

The kit (Via my Etsy store) instructions show you how to make the bookmark as a bagged-out clean edged piece.

Recently I embroidered June, as a gift for my Great-Aunt. Instead of bagging out the seams, I decided to lay the front and back wrong sides together, and with the ‘Gemstone/Month’ thread colour, used a split stitch along the seam line and created a raw fringed edge from the seam allowance.

I also experimented with embroidering the poem on the reverse and was very happy with results.

The following instructions show you how to make a raw-edged bookmark, with the added bonus of embroidering the poem for each month on the reverse side.

1. Using a pencil, draw the stitch line for each front & back. Leave a 1-1.5cm space around this line (this will be your raw edge). Embroider the front panel as usual, following the kit instructions.

2. Trace through the poem onto the back panel. Embroider using a Black (DMC310) or Dark Grey / Charcoal (DMC 3799). Use 1 strand, and back stitch each letter. Use a French knot to dot the i’s.

3. Cut our the front and back panel (keeping your raw edge allowance), and place wrong sides together. check the poem is facing the way you want it to. If you like, use dressmakers pins to help keep in place.

4. Using the “gemstone” colour thread (or any thread colour you wish), with 2 strands split stitch along the pencilled guideline - taking care at the corners to keep them crisp, if carefully done, the back will have neat back-stitches and no gaps between stitches.

5. Now trim the edges so they measure the same around all sides. With the tip of your snips/needle, tease the first loose warp/weft yarns loose. Pull a few out from each side, keeping an eye that you don’t get too close to your stitches. Press with a light-med iron once finished.

Download the embroidery poem templates & alternative instructions here:

BirthMonth Poem.pdf

Download PDF • 9.15MB