Cloth Napkins: not just for fancy dinners

My project is complete!

About a week ago, I got to thinking.  Every night Matt and I use one of our ugly paper towels with our dinner as a "napkin."  While a paper towel is practical because you can just throw it away later, it is not 1) very festive and pretty, 2) good for the environment, and 3) soft in any sort of way.  So to combat all of these issues, I decided to make the Slye household some cloth napkins.  

I started the project on Sunday but was only able to complete the first step of cutting out the squares.  I had been planning on taking today off from work so it lent me the perfect opportunity to finish my project.  Below are all the steps I took along my cloth napkin making journey.  I ended up with 42 cloth napkins in all which took about 5-10 hours to make from start to finish.  I wasn't really keeping time so that is a very rough estimate (as you can tell).   I love them all and look forward to featuring them with coming dishes!  

First, I picked out some fabric from my large fabric stash. 

I created a pattern by cutting an 11x11 square out of a cereal box side.

And then I got to cutting.

After all the squares were cut out, I ironed down all the sides about 1/4-1/2 inch.

These are all the squares with all the sides ironed down.

Next I pulled out my very handy sewing machine and began
sewing along all the ironed edges of the squares.

First cloth napkin completed!

All 42 cloth napkins completed!

The completed project.