Sewing with Olivia: Napkins
While waiting for my 91 year old grandmother to finish her physical therapy appointment, reading a copy of Martha Stewart Living from 2015, I stumbled upon a brief suggestion about personalizing a table with homemade napkins. I snapped a quick pic so I wouldn’t forget the idea... I forgot the idea... until the idea of starting this blog and I was looking for a good sewing craft. This is such a fun and simple project for beginning sewers. You can even sew them by hand.
When looking for fabric for this project, I wanted a sturdy cotton fabric and came across Joann’s vintage fabric collection. The whole concept behind homemade cloth napkins was to personalize your table, and I decided that mismatched napkins would be the perfect representation of me... plus I fell in love with all the prints and could not narrow down my selection. I do suggest throwing in a solid, complimentary color to break up all the prints. I bought a half yard of each, each half yard yields two napkins. I bought 2 1/2 yards total, so 10 napkins. To be completely honest I didn’t do that math before purchasing my fabric, or else I would have bought another half yard to make a solid 12, I don’t know why but 10 doesn’t sound like a set of napkins but 12 does? Like 12 is a dinner party. That’s a normal thought process right?
Anyways, do the math first and the shopping second.
Once you have your fabric, mark off 18” by 18”
Repeat on all fabric
Cut your fabric so that you have (we’re just gonna pretend we’re all making 10 napkins okay?) ten 18x 18 squares.
You’ll have left over fabric- save it. You can use it for the scrunchie tutorial I have listed.
Now, there are two ways to sew or *sewing term* finish these.
Double Fold Method
We can do a double fold hem, where *shocker* you double fold each edge of the napkin so you no longer see the raw edge. This will give you the cleanest looking napkins. If you’re sewing by hand this is the method you will be using.
1. Fold one edge of the fabric down 1/4” and press with your iron
2. Fold down the same edge down 1/4” so that the raw seam is encased in the fold and press with the iron again
3. Pin every inch or so to ensure the fold stays in place
4. Repeat on all four sides
5. Repeat on all ten napkins
6. Stitch a 1/8” topstitch around the entire napkin, pivoting at the corners (I used a contrasting color for the thread, but follow your heart!
That’s literally it! Trim off any stray threads and you are good to go! Easy, right?
Raw Edge Method
If you’re using a machine, you can alternatively do a tiny zig-zag stitch to make it look like an overlock stitch and you’ll have a frayed edge. This will give you a more rustic looking napkin. I did half one way and half the other. Between you and me, even though ironing the edges down for the double fold seam take forever... I recommend that method. In the end, the double fold actually required less time and thread.
But! If you wanna be a little granola girl with a frayed hem… do the zig, girl!
I set my machine to be the tiniest spacing but like a 1/8” wide stitch for the zigzag setting.
Then you literally just stitch around the perimeter with a 1/4” seam allowance.
It sounds fast, but it takes longer than you think… you constantly have to rewind your lower bobbin, it requires soo much thread… not worth it.
