DIY Embroidered Linen Napkins

If you follow my sewing adventures at all, you’ll know by now how much I love 100% natural linen fabric. I’ve been wanting some linen napkins for a while now as I think they are ultra chic and modern. I chose to use the natural color to hide stains and also because it is timeless. I bought the 5 ounce linen from this online store.  I found this tutorial that helped me make the mitered corners. And with a few tweaks to make the corners a bit easier to master, I turned out nearly perfect mitered corners. Maybe between that tutorial and mine you’ll get the same results.

The napkins take about 20 minutes each to sew and another 5-10 minutes to embroider.

First, cut each napkin 20”x20”.  Fold up each corner of the napkin 1 1/2 inches and iron in place. Clip the corners about 1/2” inch. It’s easier to get a perfect miter if you also choose to fold the napkin at a 45 degree angle now and iron a crease there as well.

Fold up each corner about 1” and iron into place on the 45 degree angle, as seen below.

Unfold the edge you just ironed and fold the fabric up again, this time just 1/2”, iron in place and then 1/2” again to your first fold line, as seen below. Pin really well as the corners especially. Repeat for all four corners.

Sew two lines around the perimeter. I sewed one line right along the inside edge and another line about 1/4” away going directly down the middle of the folded edge. You could sew a third line on the very edge to the mitered edge perfect in place, as you can see, I chose not to that. Everything is secure and held in place.  Behold your perfectly mitered corners.

You could be done, but now is the fun part—adding a simple and modern embroidery motif.  Iron your napkin as seen below. This will help you center your embroidery design. I chose to embroider the bottom right section but  I also think the bottom middle section would be lovely.

Whatever design you choose remember that the napkin is seen on both side by your guests; therefore, I would suggest using a lightweight design—one that will just require a wash away stabilizer. If you choose a ‘heavier’ design you’ll need to use a cut away or tear away stabilizer and that would look not-so-lovely from the back of the napkin.  But that’s just my opinion. I used by small 4x5 hoop, two layers of wash away stabilizer and 505 temporary adhesive spray.

I am using my Spirals design. It’s fast at just 3700 stitches and a good lightweight design only needing wash away. Make sure you use two layers though! I chose to use just once color of thread but you could use the two colors called for.

Once embroidered, toss in the wash to remove the backing. Iron and enjoy.

I love the iridescent effect of this design.