Pencil Bookmark Cross Stitch Pattern

To celebrate back to school season, I wanted to make a fun and useful cross stitch pattern, so I decided on this cross stitch pencil bookmark.

It’s a really easy pattern even though it calls for six colors. You definitely don’t have to use all the colors if you don’t want to, and you can use different colors to make a colored pencil instead of the traditional yellow one.

These sorts of projects always end up taking longer than I imagined they would in my head, because I just don’t stop to do the math of exactly how many stitches are in a piece that’s 23 stitches by 74 rows (1,702, though not every single one of them is covered, most of them are).

But because the coloring of the chart is so straightforward, I’d say it also doesn’t take as long as 1,700 stitches sounds, if that makes sense. Because you barely have to count anything and could make most of it without consulting the chart, you can get into a groove pretty easily and stitch whole sections in a single sitting. I had a lot of fun stitching this one and I think you will, too.

Once the stitching is done, take a piece of felt and sew it to the back to hide the mess you’ve made and make it a nice smooth bookmark that’s easy to use in whatever book you might be reading.

This is a fun one to make for yourself or a kid in your life who is going back to school. But it would also be a fun teacher appreciation gift or holiday gift, especially for an English teacher but really anyone would like this one I think.

You can grab the free chart and get all the instructions for assembling your own cross stitch pencil bookmark over at Our Daily Craft.

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Back to School Cross Stitch Patterns

Cross stitch project bags aren’t a necessity, but if you’re traveling with a work-in-progress, or just want to keep your fabric, floss and notions clean and corralled away from kids or pets, the right project bag makes a real difference.

Project bags are not a necessity when it comes to cross stitch, or any other craft. But if you’re traveling with your cross stitch, or you want to keep things clean/organized/away from kids or pets, using project bags is a great idea.

Of course any kind of bag can be a project bag, from a zip top bag to a reusable shopping bag. I like to use the plastic zipper bags that sheets come in as project bags, especially for longer term storage of projects in hibernation because it keeps them clean and dust free but also allows me to see what’s in there.

Sirious Stitches has a very comprehensive post covering various options that they and other people in their community use for project bags and storage.

Probably the best thing about it is as it goes through the different kinds of bags there are links to tutorials if you want to make your own (because we’re mostly all multi-crafters, right?) and also places that you can buy bags if you’d rather go that route. You’ll find projects for a clear vinyl pencil pouch perfect for storing bobbined thread, large square pouches, vinyl square pouches, flat bottom pouches with zippers, folio cases with large pockets, bobbin pockets and multi-fold cases.

The point of all that research was that Siri wanted a new project bag, so you can click through to see not only all of these project options but what they ultimately made and how it’s working. It’s a really lovely project bag that makes me a little jealous on behalf of my projects that mostly just sit on my desk (or in a plastic shopping bag, ugh) while I’m working on them.

Do you have a favorite project bag? I’d love to hear about it. And be sure to check out the post at Sirious Stitches.

[Photo: Sirious Stiches]

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