Ribbon Bookmarks

I live in middle Tennessee on the campus of a home for mentally challenged adults. My husband works here full time doing maintenance, I help out some here and there.

The home is called Cave Springs Home. It is a non-profit charity organization. It depends on donations to continue doing the work helping people and all donations are tax deductible.

So something I've been working on lately is making ribbon bookmarks to give to people who donate to Cave Springs in the near future. Donations are what makes this place able to stay open so they are very much appreciated by everyone here. 

So I'm making these bookmarks and donating them to the home to give as little thank yous.

Each bookmark has three ribbons but otherwise are each different. Different colors, beads, charms, etc.

While they make great bookmarks for any book they are especially helpful with Bible study. You can place one ribbon in a section you are reading and another at a corresponding verse you want to look at. Great for when the speaker says "hold your finger here and turn with me to..." you can avoid the juggling that comes with that statement!

You can check out the Cave Springs website at www.CaveSpringsHome.org 

If you would like a bookmark of your own, then donate soon to Cave Springs Home either by mailing them a check or via the paypal button on their website.

"And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me." -Matthew 25:40 

Apron For Charity

As I previously mentioned here the group "Craft Hope" is currently collecting handmade aprons to send to the women of Haiti.

The second apron I made is a little more involved but still not too complicated if you have done a little sewing before.

If you go the route of fat quarters you could make this in about two and a half fat quarters.

I made it with extra fabric I had around.

I wanted this apron to be able to fit a larger woman (beauty comes in bigger packages too!!).

So I cut four pieces of fabric measuring 8 inches wide by 22 inches long.

I picked three fabrics that matched well and just cut two rectangles out of one fabric.

For mine the two outside pieces are a tiny blue and white gingham, there is also a medium blue panel and a panel that is white with tiny orange, purple and blue flowers with some greenery. The pocket is out of the flowered fabric and the ties are out of the gingham.

I also cut a piece 11 by 8 inches for the pocket. And two pieces 30 inches long by 3 inches tall for the tying strings.

I laid two rectangles together, facing each other and sewed down one long side.

I separated those two and laid another down and sewed it along the long side. I kept doing this till all four were sewed together to make one big square.

Next I went around all the outside edges and folded in towards the back about 1/4th of an inch, then folded again and sewed. 

For the pocket I did the same fold over and sew around all sides as I did to the main apron part. 

Then I centered it on the apron and sewed the sides and bottom down.

For the tying strings I folded the fabric in half so that it was now one and a half inches wide. Then folded both edges in about 1/4 of an inch and sewed. 

If it helps you can iron your fold to help them stay in place.

To finish I sewed one end of the tying strings to the top of the right and left sides of the apron.

From one end of the strings to the other is 86 inches on mine. This will fit a larger lady or give plenty of tying room for a smaller lady.

If you can sew a straight line make an apron and help others!