Make your own cloth napkins

Make your own cloth napkins « Skip To My Lou

posted by cindylouh on April 20th, 2009  

=

I am working on a little project that needs cloth napkins (stay tuned...) and thought making cloth napkins would also be great for Earth Day (April 22)!

-

Here are two versions, one with  mitered corners and the other with square corners. First pre-wash the fabric. Cut fabric into a square 1" larger than the desired finished size. I cut 17 inch squares so that I would have 16 inch napkins.

Mitered Corner Napkin Instructions

-

Iron edge over 1/4 inch.

Moving clockwise, iron next edge 1/4 inch over. Iron all four sides then fold first side over again another 1/4 inch. Do all four sides moving clockwise.

Open up corner.

Cut off top of corner.

Fold top edge down (to corner of second fold line) and iron.

Fold the side edge  to the middle on each side (folding on press lines - fold side down then fold again to make corner). Repeat until all four sides have mitered corners.

Sew all the way around the edge of napkin.

Finished with a mitered corner napkin!

Square Corner Napkin Instructions

-

To make a napkin with square corners, iron edge over 1/4 inch. Moving in clockwise direction iron next side 1/4 inch until all four sides have been pressed 1/4 inch.

Now fold over edges another 1/4 inch (moving in a clockwise direction).

When all four sides have been folded over twice, sew all the way around the edge of the napkin. I think most people sew straight off the edge on each side, but my sewing machine doesn't like sewing through those layers.

I also like the way it looks from the front.

Finished!