Cloth Napkins 5 Ways

In a desire to cut down on our use of paper products, I committed myself to making 40 cloth napkins over the course of a summer. These 5 napkin styles were the result Supplies: Cotton or linen fabrics for napkins (each unhemmed napkin measures 21x17or a fat quarter is just the right size for this) Thread Rick Rack Fabric for ruffles Iron on fusible fabric glue (HeatnBond) Small amount of fabric for eat appliqu Transfer paper Embroidery floss Tools: Sewing machine Scissors Needle Iron Washable fabric marker Embroidery Needle Embroidery Hoop Project URL with photos: http://chezbeeperbebe.b logspot.com/2009/09/tu torial-and-pattern-clothnapkins-5.html

Napkin #1: The Basic, No-Frills Napkin

1. Take the fabric you have selected for your napkins (you can use different patterns and colors, if you so choosealso remember fat quarters make this a cinch since you do not even need to cut the fabric at all and you can skip right to step 2) and cut then into rectangles that measure 21 inches by 17 inches (I admit, I do not spend a lot of time ensuring I cut a perfectly straight edgeas a result, the edges of all of my napkins are a bis wonky, bts who giver a rip? Theyre napkinr, afser all!) 2. Go get your iron. Now, fold the edge over about inch on each edge, and press with an iron. Fold over the edge on the opposite side and press. Repeat with the two other edges.
inch

3. Now, go get your sewing machine. Select a coordinating thread for your napkins and load it into your machine. Now, while you are at your rewing machine, strn yotr napkinr raw edge tnder yotr firrs folded edge, ro yotr napkinr hem ir abots 1/8 of an inch wide, and rsisch shir down ar yot go. (I dons bosher wish pinr, more harrle shan shey are worthagain, remember, you are making napkins to wipe your food covered face on, not bridal wear.) Repeat with opposite edge. Then finish remaining two edges. Piece of cake! Napkin #1 done!
1/8 inch

These napkins and their instructions were created by Holly Keller of Beeper Bb. It is intended for personal use and may not be reproduced, copied, or re-used without permission from Holly Keller/ Beeper Bb. That said, please do use the instructions to make your own napkins for you or for gifts. Happy crafting!

Complete Napkin Hem

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Sew here 1

Napkin #2: The Sweet & Simple Rick Rack Variety

1. These napkins are linedmaking them good for laps at picnics. This means you will need to cut two equal sized pieces of fabricone for the front and one for the back. Cut your fabrics to napkin size. Cut a piece of contrasting rick rack as long as the perimeter of your napkinabout 76 inches. 2. Get your sewing machine and place the rick rack about - inch from the unfinished edge on the right/patterned side of the fabric you selected for the front-side of the napkin and sew into place, running around the entire edge of the napkin until the ends of the rick - inch rack meet.

Right side of fabric facing up

3. Place the fabric you selected for the backside on top of the other piece to which you just sewed the rick rack. Right sides of the fabrics should be facing in toward one another, and wrong sides should be facing outthe rick rack is sandwiched between the fabrics. Pin the edges of the fabrics together.
Right sides of both fabrics facing in against one another

Wrong side of fabric you selected for the napkin back facing up

4. Flip the napkin over so you can see the seam where you sewed the rick rack in place. Now following right on top of the seam for the rick rack, sew the front and back pieces of the napkin fabrics together, leaving an opening to turn it right side out.
Seam where the rick rack was sewn into place earlier Leave open for turning right side out

5. Turn the napkins right side out, taking care to push out the corners with a chop stick or the tip of your scissor. Turn the open edge in and press, being sure to fold it in so the edge of the rick rack will stick out along the edge as it does on the rest of the napkin. 6. Sew around the perimeter of the entire napkin, about inch from the edge (this helps to hold the layers of fabric flat and will close the opening where you turned the napkin), being sure to catch and secure the open edge you folded and pressed in.

Sew around the edge, about inch in from the edge

Napkin #3: The Pretty Ruffled One

1. Follow the entire instructions for Napkin #1: The Basic No Frills Napkin. 2. Now cut out or 1 inch strips of fabric (depending upon how wide you want your ruffle to beshe wider she rsrip, she more 70r era stxedo-y it will look) in either a matching or contrasting fabric to your napkin fabric. Make the strips as long as you can with the fabric you have. You will need about 115 inches (3 yards + 7 inchesor about 1.5 times the length of the perimeter of your napkin) of fabric--of course, most fabrics would not be this long so you will need to sew together the appropriate number of strips to reach this lengthbe sure to allow a few extra inches if you need to sew several pieces together since this will take up some fabric in the inseam. (I like to use old cotton sheets for the stripsthey are nice and long and I do not mind slicing them up like this at all)

3. Get your sewing machine ready. Set your machine to sew the longest stitch it can (I also
like to lessen the tension a bitit makes drawing it into gathers later much easier), sew a line down the middle of the entire length of the strip of fabricand this is important ,

you can secure the stitch by sewing backward at the beginning, but be sure not to back stitch at the end as you normally wouldyou want to leave a long tail of loose threads.
Do not secure your thread with a backstitch at the end of your fabric strip

Leave long thread ends

4. Working with care, begin to pull one of the loose threads and push the fabric back in relatively even gathers along the whole strip of fabric. This takes some time and patiencedo not yank too hard or you will break the thread and then you will have to go re-stitch the line down the strip of fabric. Easy does it here. The gathers you are creating should be on the looser rather than the denser, tighter end of the spectrumif you make them too tight, your strip of fabric will not be long enough to go all the way around the perimeter of your napkin. You will also want to periodically check the length of the ruffle you are creating to ensure it will fit about 1 inch inside the entire perimeter of your fabric and that the ends of the ruffle will meetyou may have to loosen or tighten your gathers accordingly to make it fit. 5. Once you have the ruffle made and sized correctly, tie off your ends of thread and make a knot with your loose threads and clip the excess thread. Pin the ruffle just inside the perimeter of your napkiinabout 1 inch inside the edge on the right side of the fabric. 6. Sew your ruffle into place on your napkin using a matching thread, sewing down the middle of the ruffle, all the way around the napkin. And yes, I did leave the edges of my ruffle entirely unfinished so the edges would fray over time. I like this less formal look (and the easiness of not having to finish the edges)but you can always finish your edges of your fabric strip before you gather it into a ruffle, if you are so inclined.
Pin the ruffle about 1 inch from the edge and sew in place down the middle of the ruffle.

Napkin #4: The Bossy Eas Appliqu Napkin

1. With these napkins, I did not finish the edgesI washed them first and allowed them to fray out before sewing on the appliqu letters. I like the look of this for this napkin. 2. Selecs a consrarsing fabric so yotr napkin so make she eas appliqt. Prins she lesser template on page 6 (preferably on card stock), and cut out each letter. 3. Trace the letters onto your appliqu fabric with disappearing/washable fabric marker.

4. Using an iron-on fusible fabric glue like HeatnBond, fuse the fabric with the traced letters to the fusible fabric glue sheet (following the instructions on the package). 5. Cut out each letter individually, peel away the paper backing, and apply and pin to the lower edge and corner of your napkin. Iron into place, following the instructions on your fusible fabric glue package.

6. Get your sewing machine and carefully zigzag around the edge of each letter.

Napkin #5: The Embroidered Vintage Happy Face Napkin

1. Again, with these napkins, I did not finish the edgesI washed them first and allowed them to fray out before embroidering the face. 2. Print out the smiling face on page 6 and cut out around the face. Tape the face to some tracing paper and place the paper at the corner of the napkin, where you would like the face to appear, tracing paper side down against the fabric, embroidery image on top. 3. Using a dull pointed object, trace around the entire face, using gentle pressure. Check your image to ensure it transferred properly.

Split stitch

Satin stitch

4. Place your embroidery image in an embroidery hoop, embroider it. You will use a split stitch to embroider everything except the inside of the eyesfor this you should use a satin stitch.
5

Eas Appliqu Template

Happy Face Embroidery Pattern