Saturday, July 27, 2013

DIY Embroidered Linen Napkins

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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I love the iridescent effect of this design.

2 comments:

QuiltingCyclist said...

Cynthia, you are so talented. Thank you for sharing this. Will purchase this design soon and get linen.

QuiltingCyclist said...
This comment has been removed by the author.

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