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.

The garden as of today! everything is still alive and growing well.
The squash that is in the compost heap- we are going to be over whelmed with squash if i dont watch out

as of 6/2

my squash as of 6/2, it has a bloom on it now

(click to see labels) So here is my garden today. Its doing pretty good. My mom planted pumpkins last year and the seeds got everywhere and so they keep popping up so I really have to keep after them but things are looking pretty good other then that.

I have silk worms at work, majorly creepy! a lot of them are cocooned now so that does help, they went through so many leaves, I was worried I would run out at times.

A while ago Carly and I went to Cal Poly Pomona and picked a ton of strawberries, well I froze some and then like 3 weeks ago I made strawberry freezer jam- 9 1/2 pint jars. It was soooooo good,I gave 5 jars away and we went through the other 4 in no time. I think I may need to make more. I did use one jar to make a white cake with jam filling with a lemon glaze on it-yummmm!

My garden on March 28th

it has labels if you click it



Molly had me make earthhour tie dye shirts


Molly during earthhour.
She made salsa, i cooked corn in the fire. It was a fun time, it not a little dull.

-Long time no blog, i am horrible at this
-I have been to Graceland
-and i have been in the Atlantic ocean and pacific in the same month
- we drove 5080 miles in 9 days
- I have taught my self to knit socks
-i really do enjoy making them
- i am working on molly's gloves now
- i finally finished my sweater it is like the best thing ever
-my class is going well
-those kids keep me busy
- i have 11 but only ever 10 a day which is way nice
-we have a new kitten
-Bill in a Siamese kitten
-the other cats are not that big of fans of him
-Archie loves to play/bug him
-house sitting for like 14 days in a few days
-painting Eric the new pastors office this weekend a light grayish and a green, hope he likes it
-doing Christmas tree crafts again might be my last year, its getting pretty old
-my dad was in a pretty bad bike accident last weekend- doing much better then he thought he would be only 5 days latter and even went to work today
-I want to make a nativity for my class to play with before Christmas, need to find a good pattern and then work on them
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