Simple DIY Cloth Napkins

This is a post I have been meaning to get done for a while, but time has gotten away from me.  It has been a busy summer, maybe things will slow down now that the kids are back in school.  I know, wishful thinking!  Oh well, better late than never right?  When I decorated my coastal summer tablescape I needed some napkins for it.  What I had on hand was very limited and I wanted them to match the colors of my tablescape theme.  So I decided to make my own.  These are very simple DIY cloth napkins that anyone can make, even if you are a beginner sewer. If you are looking for a more fancy napkin, check out these DIY cloth napkins with mitered corners and trim.

*There are links to products in this post that I use or are similar to products I use.  If you buy something from one of these links, I may make a small commission (with no additional cost to you) from the purchase.  I will not recommend anything that I would not buy myself.  Thank you for supporting my blog!

For this project you will need:

• 2 yards fabric of your choice – I used 100% cotton, if you want a thicker napkin, you could use a thicker fabric.  You will get 6 napkins from this amount of fabric.
• Cutting mat, rotary cutter and 24″ ruler – this is optional, you can just use scissors to cut your fabric but this makes cutting fabric so much easier!
• Sewing machine (this is a newer version of the one I use)
• Iron
• Scissors
• Sewing gauge
• Thread

You will want to make sure to wash and iron your fabric before making your napkins or they will shrink after you wash them the first time.   After your fabric is ironed well (use lots of steam!!), cut your fabric into six 20”x20” squares.  This will leave you with a finished napkin size of 18” square.  

We will make a double fold hem on each side.   This finished hem is easy to make and it will hide all of the frayed edges to give your napkins a professional look.  Using your handy dandy sewing gauge set to ½”, fold over one edge and iron it down.  

Keep moving along the edge of the fabric with your gauge and iron until it is all ironed down.

Now you will fold that same edge over onto itself and iron it down again.  

Take the fabric square to your sewing machine to sew the ironed edge down.  Using a normal straight stitch, I sewed the hem with a ⅜” seam.  Make sure to back stitch on each end to lock your stitches in.

You will repeat these steps with all four sides.  

The corners can get a little thick to sew through since there are 4 layers of fabric, but my machine had no problem with it.

That is it!  I told you they are simple!  I really did not even know if they warranted a tutorial but I was a beginner once too!  🙂  Hopefully this tutorial will help someone else.

This is a great (and cheap!) way to change your table decor to fit any theme or season.

Have a wonderful day!