We use cloth napkins around here, but please don’t think that we’re hoity-toity about it. They are several years old, stained and threadbare. If we didn’t use cloth napkins, I’d go through a hundred paper towels per meal. I’m that messy.
While pants shopping on Saturday, we came across the clearance linens at Younkers.
“We need more napkins,” Lloyd said.
“These are too expensive,” I said.
“They’re a dollar each,” he said.
“I can make them for less,” I said.
“But you won’t,” he said.
Oh, yeah?
Oh, yeah?
Fortunately, this cloth came with pre-drawn squares, so there was none of that pesky ‘measuring’ business.
There will be no actual sewing pictures, or you’d have to see my freakishly vein-y hands.
There was no pattern, and I kind of messed up the corners, but these things are for wiping pizza off my face, so who really cares, right?
So there you have it. They’re done, but that’s an hour and a half of my life I’ll never get back – though I did get to watch Bridezillas while working on them.
We should have just bought the dumb napkins. (But don’t tell Lloyd that.)
If you really want to be eco-friendly, you should just get a dog and train it to lick your face during meals. Then you’d never need napkins.
The power is yours!
That is so exciting! If my memory is correct, you’ve had the other napkins for about 15 years.
Didn’t we start using cloth napkins when Hotel Sommerer had 8 or 9 visitors for a good part of the Summer?
That’s what I thought.
Nice napkins. I really like the material and the fact that it was pre-patterned for you.
We didn’t actually know that it was in squares like that. We just looked through the remnant bin at the Wal*Marts, and picked some out that was pretty, looked absorbent, and maybe wouldn’t wrinkle so much.
Hey! I just bought some material at garage sales to FINALLY make my own napkins. How big are they? Inches, please.
Wouldn’t a quarter for scale work? Or, is that just Brad?
They’re about 15 inches square, so I must have cut them about 17. (They have giant hems because I didn’t know what I was doing, and I was distracted by the brides.)
Thank you! and I’ll let you know how it turns out.
That is awesome! And it looks fun too! So why would you never do it again? And if I may ask, how much did each napkin cost doing it this way?
I’m ashamed to admit that I use ALOT of napkins & paper towels…:(
But before I make my own, do you use these napkins just when you eat..or do you use them while you’re cooking too? I mean do you not buy paper towels at all?
If you don’t count the other piece of fabric that we bought, but didn’t use, it’s around $0.65 each (counting Lauren’s time as being, essentially, worthless).
I buy a big bunch of cheap-o white washcloths at Wal-Mart every couple of years and use them for everything. They’re like mini-towels/mop-rags. The napkins are also occasionally used for cleaning up when cooking, but only the really, really stained ones. Which, er, seems to be all of them.
AWESOME!! I tried to make handkerchiefs once and it was a real pain to get the edges done. I can see why you say you won’t do it again…
Cool! I might have to do this.
Got pizza, will travel!
When I first moved in with my husband, he would always be using random small towels around the place to clean stuff up. Drove me insane, but slowly, over the years, I have come round to his way of thinking. It’s the way forward, I tell you!
when i stopped using paper napkins, paper plates and paper towels my weekly trashcan levels diminished CONSIDERABLY! i make my own napkins [and sometimes un-paper towels out of diaper fabric] and i love them! sometimes i buy them at the thrift store, too.
i still DO buy paper towels though… i just can’t bring myself to pick up/clean up cat barf with fabric, ugh! and i have very barfy cats…
Oh yeah, there are some things that you need a paper towel for.