Cloth Napkins

It feels a bit like cheating on my Fabric Challenge, but I made some cloth napkins this weekend with two different fabrics from my stash.

It feels like cheating because it was so easy and fast compared to sewing clothes and because it used up a lot of fabric fast.

BUT, I did buy that fabric with cloth napkins in mind.

When I was folding up my prewashed fat quarters for my Heather Ross Far Far Away quilt (which I really will make one of these days), I thought the linen cotton blend seemed like such a nice weight for cloth napkins.

I collected up a bit more FFA for this purpose, but then I decided I might want to use that to make a bigger quilt, so I ended up buying some Echino.  Is that fabric buying rationalization at it's best, or what?  (Don't worry this all happened before I started my challenge.)

I've made napkins before where I basically sewed two fat quarters together, but since that uses twice as much fabric, I decided to try out mitered corners.  A quick Google search brought up several tutorials.  I ended up using this one from Prudent Baby which I highly recommend.

I did use one of the fat quarters from my FFA stash for my first attempt.  I'm not really crazy about the girl with horses print.  Even if I liked it, it didn't seem to quite fit in with Sleeping Beauty anyway.  I squared off the fat quarter and ended up with something like 18" x 18".  I used the 1/2" and 1" fold over measurements from the Prudent Baby tutorial.  It's a bit small for my taste, but definitely works.  (Oops.  It's the one chopped off in the photo.)

For the next attempt, I didn't square off the fat quarter.  I guess you'd say I rectangled it off.  It really didn't seem to make much difference that it was a rectangle.  That's the one from the eyeglass fabric.  It came out a bit bigger which is nice.

Because I just knew fat quarter napkins weren't going to be big enough for me, I bought 2/3 yard of each of the other two Echino fabrics.  The first one, the dark purple with the bikes, must not have been quite as wide as I thought, but I was able to start with 21" x 21" squares, and with the stripe-y one (which is lighter weight, too), I was able to start with 24" x 24" squares.  For both of those, I also used a 1/4" and 3/4" fold over.

We used them last night with dinner, and I'm quite happy with them.

Now if I can only keep them in good shape.  Our basement steps go right off of our kitchen.  Our washer and dryer is in our basement.  When something gets dirty in the kitchen, it usually gets thrown down the basement steps.  We live in an old house, so our basement is pretty nasty.  The floor is often wet, and I've spotted several big, nasty slugs (snails?).  I can't stand the thought of my gorgeous fabric touching that floor!  Then there's the whole issue with mildew.  I'll be the first to admit I'm not on top of the laundry situation in my house.  (Have I managed to convince you to never eat at my house?  Or at least to bring your own napkins?)

So I'm about to install a laundry basket at the top of the basement steps.  A simple solution (I hope) to a going-on 7 year problem.

Hope you have a great week.  How's your stash-busting going?  Check out my dwindling pile.

Woo hoo.  Almost halfway there.  If all goes well, I'll be cutting into the 10th tonight or tomorrow morning.

Comments

[Jacqueline Jones-Blacker]

Katie- I LOVE< LOVE< LOVE these napkins! Our 24 year old daughter is going to be home for Easter and wants to learn to sew. These are definitely on the list! We use cloth napkins for dinner every night.

I owe you an email--- I had just had knee surgery when I received yours and was quite drugged up!

Jacqueline

[sk8 shoes]

The excess water then gets squeezed out, the mess is flushed away, and the diaper goes into the diaper bin until wash day.