Cloth Napkins:How I made them
Supplies- sewing machine,iron (not totally necessary but helpful), scissors,rotary cutter, cutting mat/template
materials- 100% cotton I used 4 yards total (1 blue,1 green, and 2 gray), thread to match or not match if you want, go crazy
Getting started-
I have a cutting mat that is 12 inches square and i used that as the template to cut out the napkin shapes figuring that the extra edges on the mat would be what I used for my seams, that way they would come out just about 12 inches square, but I never did measure them once they were done.
I am lazy so i just folded up the fabric and cut all 3 layers at once after the first cut an I relized how long it was going to take me to cut out all the squares.
I ended up being able to cut 9 napkins out of each yard, for a total of 36 napkins, which may seam like a lot but I am not that great at being prompt on the whole laundering things that I don't need to wear like right now so, I made enough for a few weeks (only my sister and I use them on a regular biases so they last pretty long)
I started to iron down all of the seams on all the napkins but then I realized that I didn't really care if all the seems where exactly even and straight since I had a bunch to make and they were for degopping our our hands anyway so I ended up just ironing them all flat so at least they weren't to puckered but if I made them again I probably wont iron them, so do as you please.
This is the one that I actually ironed down the seams on, I used a zigzag stitch, but again I don't know if that was totally needed, but they have held up well and not frayed past the stitch.
I just went around each corner by keeping the needle in the napkin but lifting the foot and turning, it worked well on my machine and my corners look pretty good.
I did not wash the material before I sewed the napkins, but I did before I used them. I washed them with towels and sheets figuring that's what they would probably usually be washed with any way. There where a stringy mess of frays and such when I first got them out, and I had to trim up each one, but they have not frayed since so I figure the time was well spent and I was watching a trash episode of The O.C. on DVD so it went by pretty fast. We have used them on everything from water to pizza grease and they have worked great.
