How To: Sew Napkins!!

Since Lee bought me a new sewing machine for my birthday (in November), I've been sewing like a crazy old lady making outfits for her cats (that just means a lot!).
I started with our recovered ottoman, moved on to some curtains, made a couple dozen bar mops, sewed some table runners for Chinese New Year, and now I'm making napkins!

I Love Napkins . . . They're the more eco friendly choice over paper towel, they come in great fabric, and they make the dinner table look AMAZING!!!

In the words of Montell Jordan "This is how we do it"

• I use quilting fabric (usually from Jo-Ann Fabrics)
• It takes 1 yard of Fabric to make 4 napkins. (That's 1 'fat quarter' for each napkin). There is NO wasted fabric!
• And your iron is almost as important as your sewing machine.

1) Lay the fabric out flat and cut in half, then cut each half in half (so that you'll roughly have the size of napkin you want!!)

2)Iron you fabric, then fold a 1/2 inch seam down one side and iron into place, fold a 1/2" seam down the opposite side and iron into place.

3) Now fold over and iron 1/2" seams on to the other two sides.

 4) Now, I do a double fold because I like a nice finished edge, yes it's the back of the napkin, yes nobodies going to see it . . . but I still like the nice edge!
So if you're like me and still want a nice finished edge, repeat step 2 and 3, and fold those edges over on more time, in the same order.

5) For the corners I like them to look like a little miter corner, so I fold under the top fabric in each of the 4 corners Fold back over and Iron in to place!

5) Start sewing in a corner, and work your way around, when you get to a corner leave the needle in and turn the fabric, making sure those mitered corners are lined up before you sew them down!

End result:

Napkin making might be my new obsession, there are so many fabrics and so many different combinations.

So far I've created Yellow ones (my personal favorite):

A set 4 of Chocolate Cloud Napkins:

Chocolate Brown Paisley a set of 6:

Leafy multicolored ones with a red polka dot stripe running through them. To do these ones I just followed all the steps I listed above, then I took a strip of fabric and sewed it to the napkin just like I did with the Bar Mops I made a couple of weeks ago.

I also sewed in a little M :)

Making your own napkins is super affordable!! A yard of quilting fabric will cost you about $7. The Yellow fabric was $7 for 4 napkins.
The Chocolate Brown paisley was free because it was leftover from a recent pillow project!
And the red/multicolored napkins were $5 for a set of 4!

I think Napkins are the best part of a table! So what do ya think . . . planning on sewing some anytime soon??!!