Firstly, welcome to all you Noodleheads! And thank-you to Anna for asking me to participate in the "spice up your kitchen" week.
For those of you who aren't sure what I'm talking about, you can go here:
and check out all the other great tutorials Anna has lined up with a few of the most amazing seamstresses/crafters out there in blogland!
So let's get started with the tutorial for how to make some really stylin' cloth napkins so you can kiss those paper ones goodbye!
What you will need:
- eight 12.5 inch square pieces of linen in the color you prefer. I always prewash, since linen tends to shrink a lot! {Just as a side-note, I order all my linen from fabrics-store.com. The weight I used is the IL019 which seems to be a great weight for most home-dec type sewing. They have great colors, the fabric is 54" wide, and the price is awesome. And if you happen to place an order with them, if you use the coupon code: "collection", you can get 10% off your order.}
- 1 yard and 20 inches of quilting cotton cut into (16) 3.5 inch strips.
- (8) 65 inch pieces of embroidery floss (I used all six strands of each length.)
- a half and quarter ruler (this was really handy to have, but not absolutely necessary.)
What you will do:
1. Using your half and quarter ruler (or cutting mat that has 45 degree markings) cut 32 pieces from your quilting cotton strips that are 45 degrees on each end and 12.5 inches long on the shorter of the long ends. These will be your edging pieces.
2. With right sides facing, line up one of the edging pieces with one side of a linen square and starting 1/4 inch in, sew the edging piece to the linen, backstitching at the beginning and the end. Repeat this step for all four sides of the linen.
3. Now, line up the 45 degree ends of your edging fabric with right sides together and starting at the stitch from sewing the edging to the linen, stitch the two edgings together. (This stitch may be exactly 1/4 inch from the fabric edge, but if not, just make sure to stitch evenly down.) Repeat for all four corners.
4. Open your napkin up and iron all the corner seams to one side.
5. Now turn in and iron 1/4 of an inch or so around each side of the edging.
6. Now turn that fold in on all four sides until it slightly over laps the stitching on the linen and iron once more.
7. Now open your last fold up, and with right sides of the edging together, use your ruler (or cutting mat) and make a 45 degree mark on the inside of the edging, starting where the two folds come together, pin in place, and machine stitch on your marking.
8. Now trim the corner off within 1/4 inch of the seam, turn the edging right side out, and use a bone folder (or corner turner) to push the corner out.
9. Press the edging in place so it just barely covers the stitch line on the linen. Using your embroidery thread, stitch a running stitch around the entire inside edge of the quilting cotton edge. (Just to make it look a little more polished, I started and ended my stitching in between the layers and tucked the knot in there so it doesn't show.)
(the little blue thing is a rubber needle puller made by clover. It helps to grasp the needle and pull it through several layers of fabric)
10. Once I embroidered each napkin, I machine straight stitched just inside the embroidery thread with some thread that matched the edging cotton really well (so it doesn't show) just to make them a little more sturdy 'cause I like sturdy, usable stuff.
Tada! Now you have a stylin' set of napkins that can be thrown in the washer and dryer with your other linens, no problem!
And if you make a set (or even one) of these, please strut your stuff and add them to these two flickr groups:
I made it! {from a sewtakeahike tutorial}
AND,
I made it! {kitchen}
May all your dinners be as wonderful as your new napkin set!
~Penny
