Project #2: Hooked On Napkins

My completed napkin

This project builds on the Fruit Tea Towel by introducing mitered corners and edge stitching, along with adding a loop for hanging. I don't see any reason to have a loop on a cloth napkin and would have preferred this be added to the tea towel, but I did it anyway because I have a little bit of darling 1/16" ribbon leftover from two decades ago when I was into making those straw hats decorated with moss, silk flowers, and ribbons. I think the spools of ribbon were 5 for $1, so they were certainly frugal, as was holding onto them for all these years.

The itty bitty ribbon

I'm just going to say it: I couldn't figure out how to miter the corners following ELB's diagrams. Theoretically it made sense, but I couldn't do it in practice. I looked up instructions on the web and tried and failed again, and then I found these instructions at Skip to My Lou and finally I was able to miter the blasted corners. This is what I mean about feeling I have gone backwards, however, because I have mitered corners in the past and yet I felt like this was the first time.

(Papa suggested that sewing when one has been ill all day and is running a temperature might not be the most prudent thing to do.)

I used my 1/4" foot and piecing program to hem the napkin, and then my blind hem foot with the needle in the far left position to edge stitch it. I oopsed on the hemming so my bobbin thread ended up on top of my fabric, but I didn't want to tear it out and start over.

What did I learn? That I don't want to make napkins with this method, double folding and ironing all the hems. I am motivated to give my rolled hem foot another try. I also need to pay attention to what thread I have in the top and the bobbin; if I had done that I wouldn't have made the mistake with the hem thread. I do find that I like the edge stitching on the napkin so I would do that again.