Handmade Napkins

Way back in August, when I was on vacation, so, so long ago . . . . *sigh*,  I did some condo decorating and somehow got it into my head that I needed cloth napkins.  It seemed all green and fancy and what not.

I did not want to pay a lot and decided to scrounge online.  There are a lot of napkins out there on the internets!  I searched high and wide and across the globe.  It was hard to choose.  I initially had it narrowed down to these ones, aren't they cute?

But then, once I picked out a tablecloth, and decided to go in a different (non-red) colour direction, I had to change my plan and couldn't find what I wanted.  I finally decided to buy some fabric to make my own napkins.

Vintage Fabric Remnants from France

I had five different fabric pieces to work with and was able to cut them up into eight 12-inch squares.  I then paired the pieces and sewed the pairs, wrong sides together, 1/4 inch from the edge.  After that, I turned the squares right-side-out and sewed around the edge of each napkin twice, once at about 1/8 of an inch from the edge and once another 1/4 of an inch from there.  Easy peasy.  

I had much more of one fabric than the four others, so one side of the napkins are mismatched cotton florals while the other sides are all matching striped pink damask.  I love that using two fabrics allows for two slightly different table-top options.

Option 1:

Floral, sweet and casual.

Option 2:

The reverse, ever so slightly more formal.

I am very happy with my new napkins. Although, I am slightly embarrassed to admit, despite making them as "everyday napkins", I am afraid to ruin them and don't use them nearly as much as planned.  Perhaps I will have to order the Etsy set after all!

I linked up to Quiltstory's Fabric Tuesday!