Cocktail Napkins

If you're anything like me you have lots of scraps of fabric that you have lots of ideas for. A few days ago I decided to make cocktail napkins from some white fabric I had. I wanted to make them special though, so I whipped out my embroidery hoop.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the process. :(

Fortunately, it's a fairly simple technique.

You'll need: fabric, an embroidery hoop, an embroidery needle, embroidery thread

1. I cut out my cocktail napkin squares. Each napkin requires 2 squares.

2. I drew a simple flower design on the front of each napkin. I used a crayola color pencil to make the drawing. A good tip is that flowers, or any design for that matter, looks best in odd groups ie 1, 3, 5, etc.

3. I choose my embroidery colors and started at it. If you're not a good embroiderer don't worry about it. You aren't going to see the back of the napkins anyway. Close up embroidery:

4. Place the napkin face down on a napkin back and pin in place.

5. Sew along 3 of the edges of the napkin. Sew halfway along the fourth edge. Now turn the napkin right side in. It's kind alike flipping a pillowcase right side in.

6. Tuck in the last unfinished part of the napkin. Now you're going to give your napkin a border so it isn't so billowy.

7. Sew a 1/4 inch straight stitch along all the edges.

8. Voila! Done!

Close up pic:

I'm using my napkins as mini place mats in my room. But you can use yours for cocktail parties, as coasters, as a gift set, a a "doily" for a vase. Endless possibilities!