Cloth Napkins (Reduce, Reuse)

Well it dawned on me when I was filling the napkin holder for the millionth time lately that we use just plain too many napkins. Now I have a young child and a husband so napkins get used a lot at meals to wipe messy faces. So decided that cloth was the way to go. I do plenty of laundry so throwing some napkins in with a load seems like no big deal.

So after convincing my husband this was a good idea I went off to buy fabric. I didn't buy anything special as far as a material but I did find some pretty fall fabric (cause Turkey Day is right around the corner). I also bought some Christmas fabric and a pretty cream colored with white snowflakes so I would have a Christmas set and a winter in general set. (You can see these fabrics to the right.)


Here is what I bought
2 yards of each kind of fabric.
Tread
(Wow that is complex)

You will need to decide what size you want your napkins to be. A typical "Dinner" napkin (like you would get at a fancy restaurant) is about a 16" square. I made mine more like the size of a typical paper napkin at about a 13" square.
With a 16" square (and standard 45" fabric) 2 yards will get you about 8 napkins, a 13" square will get you about 12 napkins.
I was more concerned with with quantity over size, even if I used them for Thanksgiving dinner they don't need to be so big in my book, but you are making your own custom napkins so they can really be what ever size you want.

Step 1: Cutting
First wash and iron your fabric, I ironed the fold down the center the fabric back in so that it would make cutting easy for me.

I cut 14" squares (to make 13" when finished), but first cutting a strip of fabric 14" wide off the fabric (width wise).

Then cut 7" off the FOLDED side (you know cause 7x2 is 14). 

Then measure 14" on the remaining fabric (for me I only had to cut off about a 1/2" from the salvage edge).



Do this for all of your fabric.

I then ironed all the fabric to remove the crease from the folded line in the fabric.

Step 2: Pining and Mitering
Next turn in a 1/4" seam and iron flat

Turn it in one more time at 1/4" so you have a double fold seam.

I added 2 pins in the center of the side at this point.

Repeat in a clockwise or counterclockwise if you are left handed (heh heh heh) around the other 3 sides.

Now if you choose you can add some more pins and sew your napkin like it is with the square corner. I chose to Miter my corners to make them look sexy. So if you don't want sexy napkins then skip to Step 3.

To miter....
1. Open your corner and locate the square made by the folds from your hem (I drew lines with a vanishing fabric marker to make it easier to see in pictures but you don't need to do that).

2. Cut the corner off above the square.

3. Fold the corner back down, the fold will be at the bottom corner of the square (I circled the point on my picture to help you see it)

4. Now refold your 2 sides at the original crease lines. And pin.

5. Repeat step 1-5 on the other 3 corners.

Step 3: Sew
Now sew close to the inside edge of your hem (but not so close that you go off the hem like I did oops). Stay as straight as possible and stitch around the napkin, making nice 90 degree corners in your miter.

TaDa! You have a napkin.

Now you just need to repeat Steps 1-3 for each napkin. Don't worry they get quicker as you go.