Easy Homemade Napkins…No Sewing Required

Honestly, sewing is not a strength of mine. I can and will sew a button back on a shirt or skirt but that’s the extent of my sewing expertise. So when I saw these no-sew napkins in my “Freakin’ Fabulous On A Budget” by Clinton Kelly book, and saw that they were made from old shirts, well, I just had to give them a try. Clinton uses men’s shirts that are stained, (think yellowed armpits or wine stains you just couldn’t get out.)

Over the last several weeks I picked up some men’s shirts and other things at Goodwill, (when they were half off,) which I used for my napkins. You can also just use any material you might already have. And seriously, your napkins don’t have to match. Just go with a color, pattern, or print you like and mix and match.

MATERIALS:

• Old shirts (or anything that has enough material to make a napkin in the size you want)
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Iron
• Ironing Board
• Hem tape (I picked mine up at Michaels)
• Pen or Pencil

DIRECTIONS:

Using the back of an old shirt and a ruler, measure and cut a 19-by-19-inch square. (I picked up shirts for $1.99 each, which produced 1 napkin each in that size. If you make smaller napkins, you can get 2 napkins per shirt.)

Crease a 1/4-inch hem around the entire square and iron.

Fold this hem over a piece of 1/4-inch hem tape and iron again.

Trim away excess hem tape and any loose threads.

Super easy and cheap…

Besides shirts, you can use excess material you have or buy material from the clearance bins at your local fabric store. I picked up this material at Goodwill for 50 cents, which made 4 napkins.

This is actually a window treatment that I paid a dollar for and then ripped apart (from Goodwill.)

If you’re not sure what size napkin you want, trace or measure something you already have and like the size of. (I have to trace because even with a ruler, I make mistakes!)

Use a pen, pencil to mark your lines if necessary.

Cut the material out…

Iron a hem.

Measure your hem tape.

Iron…

Snip any loose threads.

And voila…

CLINTON SAYS…

“We cut 19-by-19-inch squares to make 18-by-18-inch napkins, but the size of your napkin is a matter of personal preference and depends on the size of the shirt you are using. As a general rule, cut the square 1 inch larger in length and width than the size of the finished napkin.”