Thursday, June 23, 2011

Independence Day Party Week - Nautical Napkins

Easy Summertime Napkins

Yesterday I showed you how to make cute, cheap, stylish napkin rings, so, today let’s create some cute, cheap stylish napkins to go in them. 

You will need: 
  • Woven fabric 
  • Ribbon 
  • Thread or iron-on hem tape 
  • Scissors 
  • Measuring device 
I selected a scrap of light-blue, woven cotton, basically, men’s dress shirt fabric. Which led me to think if my husband ever carried a pen in his pocket I would probably have quite a bit of this fabric at my disposal, so, check your husband’s shirts before you purchase anything. As long as you do not decide on some crazy, wild, totally out of your color palate, printed fabric most any smooth cotton woven fabric should work fine. Cut your napkins to a size you find comfortable to cover your lap, or in my case, however your fabric will divide before you run out. I was able to make four 10.75” x14” rectangles from my scrap of fabric. 

Pin your ribbon to the fabric. 

You want your ribbon to only halfway overlap the edge of your fabric because our goal is to cover and conceal the jagged edge. 

When you reach a corner insert a pin cross ways to the direction of your ribbon. 

Turn the ribbon. 

Insert a pin and remove the first corner pin. 

I chose a 1/4” spa-blue ribbon with two recessed areas in the weave along the edges. I preferred to use this recessed area as a guideline to sew along, especially because I used white contrasting thread. If you are concerned about your ability to sew a straight line even with the aide of an indention on the ribbon just match the thread to your ribbon. Better yet, iron it on with hem tape and do not use a sewing machine at all. Only sew the inner most edge of the ribbon to the fabric. 

Fold the right side of your ribbon to the back and iron. The fabric should be touching fabric, not ribbon. As you have probably determined by now the back side of the fabric will become the face side of the the napkin. Consider this in your planning. Some fabrics have noticeable front/back differences. 

What was the outermost side of the ribbon is now the innermost. Top stitch the innermost side of the ribbon (the side you haven’t sewn yet). 

This is what your completed product should look like. 

Voila! A fine finished napkin for your nautical set.

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