Charlottesville Crafter: Book Thong

By Karen May-Free

Nothing can help you through the winter months stuck inside the house quite like books. If you’re planning on reading yourself warm this winter, you’ll need something to keep your place. Why use old receipts and post it notes to tag a page when you could make yourself a stylish book thong? A book thong is essentially a string bookmark with embellishment. Here’s one I made a while back with small seashells and some beads in action:

To get started, you’ll need some beads or pendants and something to string them up with. What to use? I’m using waxed linen cord for my project, but you can also use leather cord, thin ribbon, twine, yarn or embroidery floss for a pop of color. As for beads, you can recycle an old necklace or find ones you like for this specific project.

Take your string and measure along a book that’s the size you normally use. I’m going with a standard hardback size. If you read mostly small paperbacks, yours will probably be shorter. You’ll want your cord to be about 6 inches longer than the book itself, and then fold it and cut so you have a double length.

String your pendant onto the cord, and hold the cord together so that the pendant slides to the midpoint of the cord. Make a knot in the cord above the pendant to hold it in place. Then hold the cord ends together and slide your beads down to the knot. You don’t want too many on there, just enough to be about an inch long. When the beads are on and look the way you want them to, tie another knot above them to keep them in place.

Put your thong in the book, letting the beads dangle out one end. At the other end, tie a knot where the cord emerges from the end of the pages.

Add more beads onto the cord above the new knot. Tie another knot to secure them. At this point, you can trim the excess and be finished, or you can add smaller beads onto the individual ends of the cord and then tie knots at the ends. Trim the excess cord and you’re ready to mark your place!

Happy winter reading!

Karen is a blogger and crafter who has lived in Charlottesville for 6 years after transplanting from the Shenandoah Valley. While not working or attending classes at PVCC, she blogs about her life at Precision Indecision and about crafts at CraftyKix.