DIY Cloth + Felt Napkins for Fall

Everyone welcome back our sewing contributor Jill of Snugglebug University for her second post here at the Nest!  I am so excited for you to see what she has up her sleeve this month!  Don't forget to stop by Jill's blog for MASSES of tutorials (like printing on FABRIC), KID's CRAFTS GALORE and the most darling little wooden play store I have ever seen!***************************************************************************************************************

Hi all!  I'm super excited to be back here at the Nest today!   It's entertaining season, so today I'm going to show you how you can make your own cloth napkins.  These little guys are easy to make, make great gifts, and are a great way to practice your sewing skills! And if making napkins isn't your thing, you can always embellish a purchased pack of napkins.  

I'll be making cocktail napkins, but you can totally increase the size of your fabric squares for a larger dinner napkin. 

Supplies:

• an 11 inch square of fabric for each napkin
• acrylic felt scraps (for embellishing your napkins, optional)
• embroidery floss (for embellishing your napkins, optional)
• thread
• sewing machine
• iron

Let's talk fabrics for a moment.   I like to use cotton or cotton blend fabrics for my napkins, especially fabrics which are a bit thinker and a little more absorbent.  I use acrylic felt for embellishing the napkins (the pumpkins I attached to the napkins).  Normally acrylic felt isn't my favorite type of felt to use, but it's great for a project like this.  Acrylic felt washes well and is very stain resistant.  Yes, it does get fuzzy over time (this is called pilling), but for me the other benefits I mentioned before outweigh the costs.  I wash my applique'd napkins in cold water and then hang them to dry in an effort to try to increase their lifespan (and reduce pilling).  So far so good!  Alright, let's get started!

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To make a cocktail sized napkin, I cut an 11 inch square for each napkin: 

Snip a small triangle off the corners of your napkin.

Then fold down the edges of the napkin (about a 1/4 of an inch) and press.

Your napkin should look like this.  Then we're going to fold the edges over once more.  Press again with your iron.

After you've folded over your edges and pressed them with the iron, all of your corners and edges should look like this.  

Then it's time to sew a narrow straight seam all around the edges.

Sewing around the edges will secure the raw edges down and give you  a nice finished look.

After you've sewn all of the edges, your napkin is done...or ready to embellish!

If you'd like to make a felt pumpkin to embellish your napkin with, all you need is a few orange ovals and a simple green triangle.

I use embroidery floss and a simple running stitch to attach the pieces to the nice side of the napkins.

All finished!

I made a stack of napkins, tied them up with twine, and added a felt version of my perfect paper pumpkin to make a lovely fall gift!  

Mmmm....I can almost taste that pumpkin pie!  Yum!

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Just darling Jill!!  Thanks so much for being here and sharing your skills with us today! 

Come back next month for another fantastic tutorial from Jill!

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