Sewing Cloth Napkins Tutorial: How to Sew Mitered Corners

Cloth nap­kins with mitered cor­ners are a great for hol­i­days and din­ner par­ties. The nap­kins are very easy sew. Below is an 8 step cloth nap­kins tuto­r­i­al on how to make cloth naplkins like the East­er ones I just made for myself. 

If you pre­fer to learn how to sew these with oth­er women while sip­ping wine, you can sign-up for the Sip ‘n Sew Nap­kins class on the Ana­gras­sia web­site. The Sip n’ Sew class­es are held in the Ana­gras­sia Ate­lier in South Bend, Indi­ana.

Sup­plies Needed:

1.25 yards of fab­ric (44″ width) for 4 napkins 

The East­er nap­kins in this tuto­r­i­al were made from a print­ed East­er bun­ny flo­ral cot­ton fab­ric from the Bri­ar Hill Designs’ Bun­ny Lane Col­lec­tion for Robert Kauf­man. Shop fab­ric here: East­er Bun­ny Fabric

Cut­ting board + rotary cut­ter or scissors

Small piece of cardboard

Ruler

Chalk/fabric mark­ing pen

Sewing machine*

iron

Straight Pins

*Ana­gras­sia sells fan­tas­tic Singer Elite sewing machines by Singer Sewing com­pa­ny. The Elite machines are bet­ter qual­i­ty than the machines found in big box retail stores. (CE677 com­put­er­ized Singer Elite machine is incred­i­ble and high­ly rec­om­mend­ed.) Ana­gras­sia is a licensed deal­er and you can buy the machines on their web­site here: Singer Elite Sewing Machines

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How to Sew Mitered Corners

Step 1:

Pre­wash and press the fab­ric. You pre­wash your fab­ric in the same way you would wash your nap­kins. With this said, we will pre­wash the fab­ric in the wash­er and dry­er with nor­mal set­tings and deter­gent. Press fab­ric after the fab­ric is washed.

Step 2:

Mak­ing the small pat­tern piece (to guide mitered cor­ners) from card­board. (See pho­to below)

Step 3:

Cut four 22″ by 22″ squares from the fabric

Step 4:

Press 1/2″ around all the edges. Using a ruler for help. (The final out­come will look per­fect if you get this 1/2″ perfect.)

Step 5:

Use the card­board piece to cut each fold­ed corner

Step 6:

Fold right sides togeth­er at each cor­ner. Pin it. Then, stitch 1/4″ seam allowance from the edge. (See images below)

Step 7:

Turn the cor­ners around and use the point of the scis­sors to make crisp corners. 

Then, press cor­ners and edges with iron. Use a mea­sur­ing tool to make per­fect 1″ folds when pressing 

Step 8:

Stitch down the fold using a sewing machine. Try to stitch right along the edge of the fold­ed edge. (See pho­tos below)

FAQ for DIY Napkins

What size should the nap­kins be?

Cock­tail nap­kins are 6–9 inch­es square

Lunch nap­kins are 14 inch­es square

Din­ner nap­kins are 18–20 inch­es square

For­mal nap­kins are 22–26 inch­es square

For my sewing pat­tern & tuto­r­i­al. You want to add 3 inch­es to the nap­kin size you choose to make. For instance, I said to cut 22″ inch­es square in the tuto­r­i­al above. The fin­ished nap­kin will be 19 inch­es by 19 inches.

What fab­ric should be used to make napkins?

The best fab­rics to use are cot­tons and linen. They are absorbent and wash well. Poly­ester wash­es well and often times inde­struc­tible, but they don’s absorb mois­ture well.

How much fab­ric do I need to make 4 cloth napkins?

If the tex­tiles is at least 44″ wide, You will need 1.25 yards for nap­kins 19 inch­es squared are small­er. If you are doing for­mal nap­kins big­ger than 19 inch­es, I sug­gest you find a tex­tile at least 52″ wide. 

How many cloth nap­kins do I need?

I sug­gest mak­ing enough cloth nap­kins to set your din­ing room table. I rec­om­mend that stu­dents make at least 4 nap­kins in the same print and 8 nap­kins if they have enough fab­ric and time.