Easy Fat Quarter Napkins

There’s nothing like making your own cloth napkins from gorgeous fabric! Especially when they’re super easy fat quarter napkins.

There are times when Spotlight (our big box craft store here in Australia) will pleasantly surprise you with their fabric options. It started with finding some of Jocelyn Proust’s adorable Christmas-ified Aussie animal prints of which I picked up a few, and then on a later trip, their own lovely Scandinavian-inspired red and white range.

On this latter trip, I was inspired to grab a bit of yardage and a stack of fat quarters to make some Christmas presents for friends, family, and Secret Santas – sets of handmade napkins. And so began a series of batch-making processes – sewing four napkins at a time as that’s as many pins as I had, ha!

Are you ready for the super quick recap of my Instagram Stories tutorial to make your own fat quarter napkins?!

Press the fabric.

Cut to 16″ square.

Fold each edge over 1/4″, press, fold again to enclose the raw edge, press again, and pin. Fold and pin opposite edges at a time.

Use a coordinating thread (red 40w Aurifil 2250) to stitch the hem down.

And repeat to make four sets of napkins – 12 for my parents, 6 for my oldest friend, 4 for a close friend, 4 for a Secret Santa, and one set of 4 in Jocelyn Proust’s multi-animal print for an American ex-pat friend returning to the US this week.

They really are that quick, and that straight forward.

I incurred several pin stabbings, one iron burn to a knuckle, and a few overheated finger tips from folding hot fabric. I must say, my woolen pressing mat was really handy – it added extra heat to making crisp hem folds, but also the texture of the mat holds the fabric in place nicely so it doesn’t shift about! Very useful.

So that was one very fun and productive unexpected tangent at this time of the year! And one that I shall note for future quick gift ideas. What’s your go-to quick handmade gift idea?