Fast and Frugal: Napkins

Napkins 005

I love cloth napkins and what they represent.  Cloth napkins give an aura of sit down family dinners, sunny picnics, or fancy restaurant fare.  Just seeing a table set with them makes me happy.  They never peel off in layers and stick to your hands.  They are luxurious and yet more cost effective than paper.  A set of cloth napkins will last about 10 years with daily use.  Now that I've been married for more than 11 years, I need to replenish my stash. 

Yesterday I saw a set of 3 hand towels for $4 at Wal-mart and fell in love with the fabrics.  For a moment the background turned to soft focus and the noise from my boys faded while I fingered the soft, loosly woven fabric.  Impulsively I stuck them in my basket.  I decided to use my blow money on them, though I didn't have a plan.

When I got home, I realized that they were the perfect start to my cloth napkin need.  This morning I completed the project in 15 minutes.  6 napkins for $4 is definitely less than buying ready made napkins, but not as frugal as making them completely from scratch.  I decided a dozen of these would make a great wedding gift in a time pinch.  The finished napkins are 13 by 18 inches rectangle.  A nice dinner size and easy to fold just right for under the fork. 

All I did was cut them in half:

Cloth napkin tutorial

press the raw edge over twice, and top stitch in place.  The other 3 sides were all ready hemmed from the factory.  Almost too easy to talk about.

 

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