the no-fold cloth napkin

This blog was created out of my need to share my vision of cloth napkins. Yes, I am a visionary. This is my vision: cloth napkins must come out of the wash ready to use without needing to be folded.

Let’s take a step back and first look at why I would ever use cloth napkins over paper anyway. I’m not an extreme environmentalist. But I do feel it’s important for me to lessen my environmental impact as much as I can.

I don’t want a lot of toxins in my house so I mix my own cleaning solutions. I have nightmares of plastic bags so I switched to cloth. I can't stand throwing nutrients away so they can't be used or biodegrade so I compost. I don’t like wasting paper towels so I use kitchen towels. And since I also hate wasting paper napkins, using cloth napkins just seemed like the logical next step in being green. (Ok, maybe I'm a wee bit an extreme enviromentally speaking.)

I've meant to move to cloth napkins for years. Laziness just got in my way. I never minded washing them. Washing and drying laundry is easy. It’s the folding and putting away that keeps the room I fold the laundry in messy. But every time paper napkins got laid out for a meal, I felt guilty.

I know its time to make a more economically friendly decision when I can no longer ignore the guilt. Last year, it became time for me to solve my paper napkin problem. So I started googling cloth napkins to see if there were any that I didn't have to fold. If I didn't have to fold them they'd essentially be no additional work since I could just toss the cloth napkins in the kitchen laundry basket and wash them when I washed the towels. And I could bring them downstairs at the same time too.

It was the thought of all the additional folding cloth napkins would create that made me cringe. Big time. So I googled and googled no-fold cloth napkins until I gave up hope. The one thing I found that came close was basically a square napkin that you just didn't fold. But I knew I would dirty that little thing fast, and it looked odd to me. And I just wasn't sure I was up to sewing a napkin completely from scratch. So I figured if I was meant to use cloth napkins it wouldn't be so hard.

And I waited until the guilt got to me again. Then I had a vision. There had to be a way to make cloth napkins more user-friendly.

My mind flew with ideas. I'd still need layers for absorbency, and they needed to withstand numerous wipes of hands, since I've yet to conquer that eating neatly challenge.

I had visions of using bias tape, grommets with rings, and all sorts of crafting ideas that are well beyond my current crafting abilities. Then I woke up and realized I'm actually a rather poor crafter. Whatever solution I found to my inherent laziness would have to be exceedingly simple.

And thus, my no-fold cloth napkin was born.

For this project, I used some old cloth napkins that my wonderful mother-in-law gave me. If you don't have any old cloth napkins, I suggest a trip to a local thrift store. This napkins had some bleach/sun spots, but I've managed to put those on the inside part of this project.

items needed

1. an old cloth napkin
2. a sewing machine or needle and thread
3. a pair of scissors or a cutting board system

step 1

Take your cloth napkin and fold it in half horizontally. Iron the seams so they are nice and crisp. Ironing the seams is still essential for this project to work. I know ironing is a pain, but just think of all the time saved from not having to fold napkins and just iron that bad boy with a smile.

step 2

Cut along that horizontal fold if you have a cutting board system please use it, but I used plain old scissors. Absolute perfect cutting is not needed for this project to work, which is good since I don't have a cutting board set up (even though I do want one).



step 3

Once you have two napkins where you used to have one (no worries there is still plenty of napkin for vigorous wiping), fold them in half vertically.

step 4

Then fold it in half vertically again. Keep ironing those seams.

When you go to iron the seams make sure that if there is ribbon or fringe on one side that you have that part on top and facing left. Of course, this is with the assumption that the cut edge of your napkin is the upper most part of your napkin. Trust me. This is important if you want that bit of decoration to show. I learned this the hard way.

step 5

Next sew a straight stitch seam completely across the cut top. I use lots of back stitching and so forth because I'm not at all confident in my abilities. Heck, I can't seem to sew a straight line so I make sure I've got plenty of stitching. Plus, as a relatively new and incompetent crafter, I want to make certain my seam holds up in the wash. I fear that more skilled crafters and sewers will be horrified at my seams, but these seams won't ever see the light of day again. Plus, they really hold up in the wash so I'm going to swallow my pride and post them anyways.

May my incompetence inspire others. :D

step 6

Next you just flip/fold the seam so it is on the inside of the napkin. Then iron the whole thing down one more time. This final ironing just is to negate the folded edge your napkin has from the previous ironing.



This napkin will never be ironed in my house. Now if you want to iron yours every time you wash them. Feel free. But I'd rather let my napkins be wrinkled than iron them again. They are just there to get the gook of our hands and faces anyways.

For really big gooks, everyone in my house knows to try and use the inside of the napkin. When they get stained, I don't really worry about it though. They'll still work. These are everyday type of napkins, not special occasion napkins.

If you do this project, please post something or email me a picture. I'd love to see them. Heck, I think I'll start a no-fold napkin group on flickr, even if I'm the only one in it. If you post or blog this project on your site, just give a link and a shout out back to me, thanks.

Now every morning when we set out new napkins and toss yesterdays in the kitchen laundry, it makes me smile and the napkin guilt is gone.

One a day does tends to be enough for us. My husband thinks that they could usually go a couple of days, but I nixed that early on. Once they sit overnight, I figure there are enough bacteria on them for it to be time to move on to the next napkin.

Here are some more pictures of the final project.