Re-usable fabric napkins with mitred corners
Fabric napkins look so fancy on the dining table and it’s lovely to have some special table wear for Christmas…or any festive holiday.
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you a technique for making mitred corners which gives a fantastic finish and looks really professional.
This works on any woven fabric and would be great if you have some linen off cuts or an old table cloth you can cut up! We love a bit of upcycling!
You can make these any size but I made my squares 16″ x 16″.
You can shop our Christmas fabrics here
For this project you will need:
Cotton or linen fabric I used a mixture of cotton from the shop which are all in the sale!
Scissors or a rotary cutter
Ruler
Fabric pen
Sewing machine
Step one
Decide how many napkins you want and cut that number of squares each measuring 16″ x 16″
Press a 1″ hem all round your napkin square. Use a ruler to make sure you get a precise 1″ hem and folding the fabric in wrong sides facing.
You can play with the proportions of your hem if you want and make it bigger or smaller, but I think a 1″ hem looks neat and modern.
Step two
Take your fabric pen and make a mark at the point that your folded hem corners meet on the wrong side of the fabric and do this on every corner
Step three
Press a 1/4″ hem around all four edges with your iron.
Step four
Now we need to make a 2″ mark in from each outer corner of the fabric and draw a line matching them up, the dot you made should sit just above this line.
The reason we make a 2″ mark is that this is double the measurement of the hem we pressed in step one. If you make your hem larger than 1″ you will need to adjust this measurement accordingly doubling it.
Step five
Fold your corner with the right sides together and match up the marks you just made. Your fabric will make a point.
Step six
Flip back the 1/4″ crease and then stitch on the line you drew following it to the edge of the fabric. Do the same for each corner.
Step seven
Cut the excess off at about 1/4″
Step eight
Flatten out the seam with your fingers, this will give us a nice flat corner.
Step nine
Flip the corner to the right side. Poke the corners out carefully, you can use something pointy to help. Do this on all four corners and give it a press. It’s exciting to see the neat corners at this point!
Step ten
Edgestich all around the napkin hem approx 1/4″ away from the fold with a longer stitch length ( I set mine at 3 on my Janome) and a matching or contrasting thread depending on what you fancy!
Keep your needle down in the fabric when you go around the corners and turn the fabric keeping your line as straight as possible.
Et Voila! These take a little time but it’s so worth it for the fancy finish!
A set of these would make a lovely gift and is a great way of using up fabric scraps or old sheets/ pillowcases too! You could even whip up a tablecloth now you have this technique in your stable!
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