Napkin tutorial

Our women's craft group had a luncheon tea today as many snowbirds begin planning their journeys home from Arizona for the season. Other groups in our park are having banquets, potlucks, and parties.

The luncheon table was so beautifully set for us.  At each place was the prettiest cloth napkin with a small paper box (also homemade)  filled with M&Ms and peanuts. It was so cleverly done and I'm going to attempt to describe how to make the napkins.

Start with two 14x14 pieces of cotton fabric in contrasting patterns and stitch them together. In this example, red gingham contrasted a teapot design.

Fold each corner into the middle, as illustrated.




Then gently flip it over so the folded corners are on the underside and you're looking at the smooth side.

Then repeat the process of folding toward the center as you did before. You'll now have a smaller piece.

Reach under and pull up one corner at a time to form a "petal." Pull each corner up only partway.

In this illustration, three petals have been pulled up
from underneath and one is still flat.

And then...VOILE!

You now have a fancy napkin that you can place on each plate,
or in our case, at each place.

Ours had a homemade little box in the middle filled with candy. You could use any kind of decoration, a fancy piece of chocolate, or even a teacup in the middle.  I bet you could imagine many different things to decorate the middle.

We were each given our napkin and candy box to keep as a gift.

I thought these napkins would be nice for a bridal or baby shower, or any kind of luncheon. There are so many bright and beautiful ginghams and cotton fabrics available, it would be fun to match them to the occasion.    ~~~