Cloth Napkins

I have seen a few articles on the amount of money we spend on paper towels and napkins that wind up in landfills and the solution to the problem was cloth napkins and cleaning rags.  Re-usable cleaning rags, done.  That was easy.  I just demoted my grungiest dish towels and washcloths to the cleaning supply cupboard and use those most often when I'm going to clean up a spill.  Napkins took a little more effort though.  If you know me, you know that I just can't go to the store, buy a nice set of matching cloth napkins and maybe even a few nifty little napkin rings.  I feel compelled to do things the hard way.  As in, make it myself, just to see if I can.  And, tell you that if I can, you can.

I am by no means a seamstress.  I only barely passed 8th grade sewing class and didn't touch a sewing machine again for almost 20 years.  But my dear aunt Iris gave me her old sewing machine a few years ago and my adventures began.   I have made a few respectable projects, but they all tend to be in the shape of a rectangle.  So, when I found a tutorial on Pinterest for cloth napkins, I thought hey, right up my alley, and within my comfort zone.  And, the lady who posted this had them in a basket on her table.  Yay! another use for a basket (just had to throw that in there for my basketophobe friend ;) ).

I ventured to the fabric store, found some fun prints and a couple of months later, finally got around to cutting and pressing that fun fabric and sewing my napkins.  I have made ten so far and have fabric for six more.  We have four people in our family, and though I do a load of laundry almost daily, I'd like to have enough for a few days worth of meals.  I fully anticipate that they will also serve as blankets for beanie babies, barbie dolls and probably the cat.  So, extras are probably not a bad idea.

Here's a link to the tutorial.  how to make cloth napkins  Here's a quick picture of my basket o napkins.

If you feel compelled to count, you'll notice that there are more than 10 napkins in the basket.  That's because I started writing this post before I was done sewing and waited until the basket was full before I took its picture.

We have been using them for close to a week now, and they are a big hit with the kids.  Especially Natalie who has a new found interest in setting the table.  I can also happily report that due to the cloth napkin usage, our paper towel consumption has significantly decreased.  Mission accomplished.