Mused: Napkins for Mom

I love my cloth napkins.  They have saved an amazing number of paper towels at work.  I use them for coasters, plates for snacks, cleaning up spills, and, of course, as napkins.  I went to dinner at my mom's a few weeks ago and realized that she needs napkins. 

Every once in awhile she likes to have fancy dinners (Thanksgiving, birthdays, etc) and she doesn't have any nice napkins.  So for her birthday, I made her a set.

I found some great fabric at the store that I thought she might like and found a good tutorial online for mitered corners.

I used a yard of fabric and cut it into 12" squares.  I only cut out six squares but could have made nine.  Once I had them cut, I used my wonderful iron.  I seriously don't know how I did any craft project without an iron before.  Some days I don't want to get it out, but I tell you, it's fantastic.  I found that using the steam setting helped my edges stay down very nicely. 

With the iron, I folded over all the edges of the fabric about a quarter inch, and then again, pressing to create nice lines. 

When the lines where laid, I opened it up and cut off the corners.  Then I pressed that section in to lay it flat.  Once that was set, I folded up the fabric along the lines and pressed once again.  With the corners cut off, the edges of the fabric should meet at the corner and give you a nice edge.  Most of my napkins had a great fit but this one shows a bit of a gap.  I found as I went on that you can adjust your lines with the iron to make them fit better.

I was lucky and found a cream thread at home that fit pretty well with the fabric.  I probably should have tried to find a matching blue, but I forgot to buy thread when I bought fabric. 

Tadaa!  I now have a great (I think) birthday gift for my mom.

Have a great weekend!