Sew Your Own Cloth Napkins

Looks like I'm going on a picnic doesn't it?

In our never ending search and journey of penny pinching, Hubby and I discovered something rather simple, yet overlooked, when it comes to saving money in the household budget. Being a new year, and in these financially difficult times, (when everyone is looking to save some money), I thought I would show you how we save an estimated $52.00-$78.00 a year. How do I come up with that figure? Well, I have a large family that can very easily go through an entire pack of paper napkins in one week. Given the cost of that pack of paper napkins can run anywhere from $1.00-$1.50 each, and there are 52 weeks in a year, you can multiply to see where I came up with the $52.00-$78.00 a year total spent on paper napkins. If I had bought more expensive brands of napkins, I would have spent more than $78.00 a year.

Guess what? I don't spend over $50.00 a year on napkins anymore.

I travelled to my neighborhood department store and purchased one yard of fabric from the $1.00 discount table. The black and white checked fabric in the pictures is what struck my fancy that day. Read on to find out how you can save money too.

Materials Needed:

One yard (or more if preferred) of a tight knit and heavy homespun type material (cotton only)
Sewing machine (or serger)
Scissors (or rotary cutter and mat)
Ruler
Washing machine/dryer

Instructions:

Purchase at least one yard (more if you want to make a lot of napkins) of a close knit cotton fabric that shares the same colors on each side. Homespun is a good fabric to look for but make sure that you purchase the thickest homespun you can find. If you don't know what homespun is, ask someone at your local fabric store and I am sure they can help you out. Beware, I purchased a cheap homespun fabric in a blue plaid, made my napkins and the fabric was so thin and flimsy that they crumpled into a heap in the wash. In order to use them, I would have had to iron them each time I washed them. Ironing napkins is not something that I want to do so, I now have a nice set of cleaning rags because of my bad fabric decision. Just make sure you get a thick and heavy fabric. Pre-wash your fabric if you are worried about color bleeding (homespun tends to do this) and shrinkage.

Decide what size napkin that you would like. We use napkins that are somewhere around 12-14" square. Iron your fabric. I have a rotary cutter and board so I just folded my fabric and lined up the measurements and cut away. If you do not have a rotary cutter, just cut you a template from a piece of cardboard or manila folder and use that.

After your napkins are cut out. You will need to finish the edges so that they will not unravel. I do not have a serger so I used my regular sewing machine to do the job. A serger would save you some time in the long run but a sewing machine does the job quite nicely. I can not remember the exact number of napkins I got out of that one yard of fabric but I know it was somewhere between 12-15 napkins. Depending on the width of the fabric and size that you cut, you will have more or less than I did.

Using a tight zig zag stitch, sew as close to the edge on all four sides of the napkins as seen in this picture. Trim off any extra fabric between the stitches and end of edge.

Now, throw your napkins in the washer. Wash them in a regular cycle and then tumble dry. Depending on if you used a serger, you may have perfect napkins come out or if you used a sewing machine, you might have a mess of strings hanging off of your napkins. Don't panic. Trim the strings off of your napkins and they are done. I only had a few strings handing off of the edges the first time they were washed. The tighter the zig zag stitch that you use will prevent extra strings hanging off in the long run.

Now, you have a nice set of cloth napkins to use everyday! Technically, of course, you will end up spending some money on energy expenses (washer and dryer), but to me, napkins do not take up much room in the washer and I am always washing a load of towels anyway. In the long run, I don't figure it costs much for upkeep when I toss the dirty napkins in the wash.

Congratulations, you made it yourself and you will save enough money this year to support your coffee addiction!

Rice Pad Sewing Tutorial - Part 2

Welcome to part two of the Rice Pad sewing tutorial.

Above, you will see a 13" by 13" piece of fabric chosen for the outside cover of the inside rice pad made in the last tutorial. As seen in the picture, you will need to fold down the edge on one side of the fabric (fold from right side to wrong side). Although not pictured, you will need to pin this side. Proceed to the other three sides as well and fold and pin. I folded about a half inch. It does help to fold two parallel sides and then do the two opposite parallel sides. You will need to stitch all four sides at this point.

Here is the 13" by 13" piece of outer fabric stitched on all four sides so that there are no raw edges.

Now, lay your completed inner pad in the middle of the piece of outer fabric that you just finished stitching the raw edges on.

Fold the bottom half up and the top piece down as seen here.

Although not pictured, pin the right side of the outer fabric together at this point. Once you have it pinned in place, carefully slide the inner pad out of the outer cover as in the picture above.

Now, pin the left side of the fabric together just as you pinned the right side. This is what you should have when you are done. If you look very carefully, you will see the two pins on each side here.

Off to the sewing machine you go. Follow the stitching that shows through on the right sides of the fabric, stitch straight across both edges of the cover. If you follow the previous stitching, it will look neater. Don't worry if you get off line, it doesn't affect the pad's structure. It only effects it's looks.

Next, slide the inner pad inside the cover. Straighten the outer cover that you just created.

Voila, you are finished. Aren't you proud of yourself?

Here is the finished pad in all it's glory. To use the pad, simply pop it into your microwave. All microwave settings are different but to begin with, I would not heat the pad over 1 minute on high. In my microwave, 1 minute is for sinus pressure relief (not too hot but just right). For major muscle trouble, we microwave no more than 1 minute and 30 seconds. You will need to play around with the times until you find a time and temperature that suits you. The outer cover of the pad can be easily removed and washed as needed.

The rice pad will emit a warm, moist heat that soothes and relieves. It not only helps your muscles, it is super easy on the pocket book. The best part is that you made it yourself!

Rice Pad Sewing Tutorial - Part 1

Today, I thought I would share a simple sewing craft that you can complete in just a short while, with just basic sewing knowledge. This tutorial will use a sewing machine and a few basic sewing supplies including a rotary cutter (you can use scissors if you like), thread, fabric (preferably cotton or cotton blend), straight pins, some sort of measuring device with a straight edge (I used a large quilting ruler), and rice (you can use any type- brown smells neat but I usually use white-it's cheaper- your preference).


If you do not know what a rice pad is, it is a heating pad that you heat in your microwave. It produces a steady moist heat for all of your bumps and bruises, tummy aches, and my favorite, a comforter for a sinus headache.Pictured above are several different fabrics. The pad will consist of one inner layer (containing the rice) and one outer cover that can be easily taken off and washed if needed. Decide if you want the inner layer to be a different fabric than the outer at this point. You can use just one fabric or two if you like. I would suggest that the outer layer, which will be covered in part two of this tutorial, not be white or cream (those colors show dirt too easily).

The first step is to measure out a 10" by 10" piece of fabric and cut it out with your rotary cutter or scissors.

Here, I have three 10" x 10" squares but you will only need one. (I was making three at the same time for Christmas gifts).

Now, take your 10" piece and fold it in half. You will want to pin the piece several times on the raw edge in preparation for the sewing machine.

You will need to sew a straight stitch all the way across the long raw edges that you pinned together. Now, sew only one side of the short edge. I used a scant 3/8" seam allowance. You can use a larger seam allowance if you want. Just make sure that you use the same seam allowance measurement on all seams.

What you will end up with is a rectangle with one end and the long side stitched. This picture doesn't show the stitching on the short side very well, but it is there.

Now is the time to turn the bag inside out.

Here is the bag inside out. Don't worry about pushing the corners out exactly as the rice will do this for you later.

Don't get confused! I know I said this was a rice pad tutorial, but when I got to this stage, I realized to my horror, that I was out of rice. Thinking quickly, I decided to use wheat berries as a substitute. Although I have not heated wheat berries in the microwave before, I am told they work just as well as rice. Since I have not done this myself, I would suggest you use only rice unless you know for sure that wheat berries are good substitutes. Bear with me, the wheat berries are the same consistency that I needed for this tutorial so that is what I am going to use for educational purposes.

Fill your bag with rice (ahem, I know I'm using wheat berries...) and leave about 3-4 inches unfilled. This will allow the rice some moving room and will create a pad that is not hard as a rock when you use it.

Once you have filled the bag all but about 3 or 4 inches full, turn the raw edges inward about an inch or so (use your judgement here, you just need enough to be able to catch both edges in a seam in the next step.

Quickly pin the two edges together that you had previously turned inward. I say quickly because the rice will try to escape if you are not careful. "Don't run away rice, we need you!"

Here, I am sewing across the pinned edge to close the seam. Don't forget to take your pins out before the needle runs over them. Sometimes you can get away with this but 9 times out of 10, you will break a needle this way.

Congratulations, you have completed step one of making a rice pad! What you have before you, is the inner part of your rice pad. This part can not be washed and must be protected by an outer layer to keep it clean and dry. We will cover how to make the outer layer in part two of this tutorial.