Carbon Creations: Cloth Napkins with Mitered Hem

Hello crafty friends. This is actually the first project I attempted with my new sewing machine. My mom got me a book, Stitch by Stitch: Learning to Sew One Project at a Time, and it is wonderful. The author has a very down-to-earth approach as she takes you through the parts of a sewing machine, the tools, and techniques. It's just great.

So I love using cloth napkins because paper towels and paper napkins are not reusable and they are expensive. Boo.

I've made several of these from some remnants from Jo-Ann's and scraps. The patterns are kinda crazy and don't match much, but you can wipe your mouth and hands on them, so, you're good. Let's get started.

Materials:

Sewing machine and accomanying materials and tools
Scissors, rolator cutter works too (I love mine)
Measuring implement (tape measure, ruler, index finger)
Fabric! (I've been using scraps but you do what you gotta do)
Iron and Ironing board (I hate ironing but it's necessary)

1. Cut out your squares of fabric. I usually do 12"x12", but I've done 10"x10" (and even a 9"x9" because it was a smaller scrap of fabric). Measure well because your edges need to be straight and square.

2. Iron!

3. Using the zig-zag setting on your sewing machine, set it to the widest, longest stitch you have. Position the edge of your fabric in the middle of the presser foot. The needle will go on the fabric, then off the fabric, then on the fabric, then off the fabric. It kinda acts like a serger, so if you have a serger you can use that. This will keep your edges from fraying. It's quite nice and I might use it for many things.

(I took this picture and then realized my fabric was right side up and it's best to do this wrong side up, so I flipped it and didn't take another picture. Oops.)

4. Press the corner of the square up onto itself. I've done 1", 3/4", and 1/2". Do it on all 4 corners and be consistent.

5. Now fold up the edges so that they meet the top of the point you just created and press!

6. Now, back at your sewing mahine, set your stitch back to just a straight stitch with the standard sizes. This will be topstitching, so if you want you can use one of your more decrorative stitches. I so would but I only have print fabrics and I think it would look weird.

Sew along the line of your "serge" line.