Switching from paper towels to cloth napkins was one of the easiest changes to reduce waste, not only it feels more grown up but it’s also more eco friendlier. Until now, I’ve been using napkins given by my mom that she didn’t use, but it was not a set so they were a mix of things and they were not particularly pretty, they were super useful but not pretty. I really wanted to have a pretty set that we could use every day, so as always (!!!!), I thought: why not make them?
A few months ago, I bought a beautiful geometric fabric to do this but last month I went to Porto’s fleamarket and found another fabric that would look great for my napkins. Best of all? It was only 20 cents!! I was beyond excited. This 20 cent fabric gave me 5 napkins which is enough for us as we can only fit 4 people in our dining table 😀 There was another scrap about the same size and price but I figured that it would be better to just try it once before going over the top, like I usually do.
I searched a good, not super complicated tutorial, and eventually decided to follow this one as I felt it was an easier way to make mitered corners for a beginner like me. Even though the title of the tutorial is “9 Minute Cloth Napkins Tutorial”, I definitely took longer than that. Including cutting, these 5 napkins, took roughly an afternoon to make. I made a lot of mistakes and spent a lot of time undoing everything and trying again hahaha. The last ones were quicker, still 9 minutes?! Very far from that. Probably someone experienced would be able to accomplish this in that timeframe.
I really loved the final result and they have been really useful. I will use the other geometric fabric for something else, I’m dreaming of making a sofa organizer, let’s see.
Did you ever tried to make your own cloth napkins? How did it go? If you do decide to make them inspired by my post I’d love to know!