Fabric Napkin

I don't know if its a southern thing but I LOVE FABRIC NAPKINS!! When I was growing up thats the only napkin we used at my grandmother's... we still use the same ones!!

My aunt (the laundry Queen) made me some for Christmas a few years ago but they were mostly holiday ones. I wanted some everyday ones, and so did my mom. We decided to buy fabric together and share it!

Off to Hancocks we went... and we got a little crazy! We kept finding fabric we LOVED!! I bought some Ole Miss fabric from a friend for $5! I also had some left over sock monkey fabric from Reeves' nursery. I brought both of those to add to my collection of napkins.

We bought 6 different fabrics (yes, I know there is 7 in the picture below. One is for Reeves's birthday party.. that's another post). We bought 2 yards of each to share. We got between 14-16 napkins from those 2 yards.

Here is what we used. We also used a singer serger like THIS one.... only my grandmother's is about 20 years old!

First we had to decide how to fold it to get the most napkins at the size we wanted. This was the hardest part!

We finally decided to fold equally three times and cut then we repeated. Until we had 6 long strips then we cut the napkins to size. We always had a little extra.

We used a rotary cutter  and a mat.

I tried to use the rotary cutter and I barely cut the top layer. So I knew this couldn't be my job!

So I passed the job on my mom. She cut the fabric with the rotary cutter but had to go over each layer a few times to get it to cut. Finally we decided my grandmother's rotary cutter was dull! 

So my grandmother took over. She cut all 6 layers of fabric in ONE swipe! Clearly she found her job for the project!!

Yay! We finally had a product that looked like a napkin!!!

Now on to the serger! I knew I wanted to sew, but I had never used a serger before.  My grandmother gave me a quick lesson! First she had to change the thread. I zoned out on this boring step. Oops!

Testing the new thread. Below is my mom (in the pink) and grandmother.

Finally I got to sew! 

The first one!!!!!!!

We cut out and sewed napkins for 2 days and still didn't finish!!!

My grandmother and I working away. Like my headband?!

These are the napkins we finished and I brought home. I had to leave 2 fabrics at my grandmother for her to finish serging around the edges. 

They have a special drawer to live in!!!!

We use them every night at dinner!! I LOVE THEM!!!!!