Part 2 Cloth Napkins

#2 Cloth Napkins

What you need:

cutting board  with measurements

long quilt ruler

rotary cutter

sewing machine

thread

scissors

fabric

1. Cut your fabric to desired size.  I cut mine 15" X 17".  Or you can use the first way of cutting your fabric by ripping.  Refer to my first post on cloth napkin making.   

2.  Once you have your fabric cut you are going to sew around the fabric at 1/4 inch.  To start sewing place your sewing needle 1/4 inch from each end.  See picture below.

3.  Sew forward 3 stitches then back stitch 3 stitches.  This is usually just called back stitching and it's done to stabilize the stitch.    

Start at 1/4 inch from each end

 4.  Sew around the fabric continually, pivoting 1/4 inch before reaching the end at each corner.

Pivot fabric 1/4 inch before the end.

 
 5. When you come around to the beginning back stitch to hold your stitch and clip your threads.   At this point you can iron the napkin, fold it and go on to your next napkin, which is what I did.  Or you can fray your ends. 

Fraying your ends

I had touched a little on fraying in my first post on napkin making.  Fabric naturally frays and this happens when your fabric isn't finished with a seam of some sort, which I will go through on Part 3 of Napkin making.  When you let your fabric fray naturally you'll get long threads coming out of your fabric.  You can do two things, 1) clip the threads with some scissors or your rotary cutter. 2) gently pull the threads until they break off.  I usually cut them off.  

Natural fraying on fabric

If you want to create they fraying your self, all you have to do is gently pull the threads.  Go as far as a couple of threads just above your seam.  The seam gives the fabric strength.    

And this is what your napkin will look like. 

My little stack of napkins.  I want to have a bigger stack so I can have enough for the week. 

I hope I have inspired you to turn to cloth napkins.  

Have a great night!

Lola

Mamita's Next Thing:

Part 3 of napkin making.  These next napkins I will be showing will be a little more advanced.  I hope you will give it a try.  They can be good for gifts.  And thinking about it, you can give the first two as gifts also.  I'm thinking mothers day gift.