DIY Cloth Napkins

I feel like this should be titled, "Confessions of a crappy sewer" (and I say sewer, because the word seamstress sounds too professional). I hate to follow directions...and I mean I avoid instruction manuals like the plague. They are always way too confusing and it stresses me out way too easily. So sewing anything following a pattern is out of the question for me. I have been wanting new napkins for awhile now, so I decided to make some using some leftover fabric I had from Peanut's party last month.

I was reading the latest issue of Food Network Magazine and there was a featured kitchen that had a table with a tray filled with napkins. And I thought, "What a novel idea! A centerpiece that is actually functional!" I am always trying to think of cute centerpieces for our small round kitchen table; flowers always die so quickly and anything else cute is usually out of place in the middle of dinner. So I moved the napkin holder from the kitchen counter to the table and decided it was time for me to get going and make some new napkins for it.

Here it is, a little sad without napkins

What you will need:
Sewing machine
Pins
Scissors
Thread
Leftover fabric 2, 16.5inch squares (You can use any combination you like, but I did this striped fabric backed with plain musin, but you could make them reversible and have a different fabric on each side of the napkin)
Old napkin as a guide

I used a napkin that I already had as a guide. Top left



So first I measured the old napkin so see how much fabric I needed. It was 16X16 inches, so I cut my fabric to be 16.5 to give me a little room. Looking back I should have done it about 17 because I am so bad.

Since I was making 2 napkins, I cut 2, 16.5 squares of the plain muslin and 2, 16.5 inch squares of the patterned fabric

Then place 2 squares, (one patterned and one plain) facing each other. So that the ugly sides are out.

If needed, you should give them a little iron. It was definately needed for mine. :)

With the ugly sides out and the pretty patterned sides in. Pin together around 3 sides of the square. Notice my terrible cutting job here. lol. This can be fixed if you can sew a pretty straight line....once its turned right side out again you won't notice how bad of a cutting job I did. Hopefully...

Sew down 3 sides of the square, leaving one side open. You need to leave it open so that you can turn it right side out again.

Here is the open side.

Now turn it right side out and iron it.

Then on the open side, flip just the ends in together and pin shut. I had a lot of extra on this side when I measured, so I flipped about 1/4 inch in.  

Sew over the open side about 1/4 inch from the edge.

Then continue with a top stitch over all sides so that it all looks uniform. I find that this helps too, when you are ironing them in the future. Otherwise the napkins get all bunchy.

Here you can see both sides

Then repeat with the other 2 squares of fabric and you have 2 napkins!

When I measured the finished product, they ended up being about 15.5 inches....oh well. close enough! Thats why I should have cut them about 17 inches. But if you are more precise than I am, you shouldn't have a problem!

Much better!

Hope this was helpful, (or at least inspiring to do a better job!) I will answer any questions if I can!