This is the beginning of our Rainy Season and the higher you go, the whiter that 'rain' becomes -- the picture below is going up Number One Hwy to Duncan just past Goldstream Park climbing up the Malahat. Treacherous in winter but very pretty now.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Drive
We went for a ride over to Victoria on Vancouver Island early this week. I love the way the mixture of trees create such a variety of colour, the yellows of the maples and the deep greens of the cedars and spruce.
This is the beginning of our Rainy Season and the higher you go, the whiter that 'rain' becomes -- the picture below is going up Number One Hwy to Duncan just past Goldstream Park climbing up the Malahat. Treacherous in winter but very pretty now.
This is the beginning of our Rainy Season and the higher you go, the whiter that 'rain' becomes -- the picture below is going up Number One Hwy to Duncan just past Goldstream Park climbing up the Malahat. Treacherous in winter but very pretty now.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Making Dinner Napkins - a picture tutorial
Cut yourself a "tool" to make a straight folded edge -- a piece of cardboard from a cereal box that is 1 inch wide and preferably longer than the fat quarter napkin - 20" inches or more if using the Canadian metric fat quarter (20" x 22") so cut to a 20" square.
Lay the cardboard tool along one side of the napkin and fold over the unfinished edge. The edge should just cover the tool -- now press the fabric so that it neatly comes over the tool, just covering it -- you have now created the first fold of your hem, it will be exactly 1", do this on all four sides of the cloth.
The corners should fold over as shown in the picture below, make sure the corners are squared up as perfectly as possible, if your fold over tends to overlap outside the edge of the hem at the corner, then your napkin is not cut square -- or your fabric is not woven square -- washing the fabric before cutting is a good idea because it helps the fabric to square itself up on the grainlines -- if you sew the napkin and it is not squared up on the grainlines, it will never fold squarely or look quite right if when it is folded on your table and the corners do not match up nicely -- but then thats just me, if you don't mind it a bit off square at it works for you, then, well, that's just fine.
Now once you have all sides pressed, open each corner and snip off the little triangle, from each folded line, just as shown in the photo below.
Now, fold over the corner with the snipped off bit, and line up the folds making sure that the "fold " exactly crosses the corner where the two pressed lines come together. You can use the iron or just finger press each edge down so that it will form a mitered corner.
Now do all four corners this way, steam press to make good sharp folds.
Now fold under about 1/2 inch so that the raw edge of the fabric does not show. Press all around the napkin again, if well pressed, you may not need pins to hold the hem in place, but if you are unsure, use a couple of pins so that you do not loose the "hem".
Each corner should finish as shown above (a little blurry) then sew with a matching thread and a even straight stitch all around the napkin. If my explaination is not as clear as it could be, there are a number of other websites that are available to read through and quite probably explain something that I have miss out. After doing more than 40 of these napkins, I tend to not really think of each step along the way.
Lay the cardboard tool along one side of the napkin and fold over the unfinished edge. The edge should just cover the tool -- now press the fabric so that it neatly comes over the tool, just covering it -- you have now created the first fold of your hem, it will be exactly 1", do this on all four sides of the cloth.
The corners should fold over as shown in the picture below, make sure the corners are squared up as perfectly as possible, if your fold over tends to overlap outside the edge of the hem at the corner, then your napkin is not cut square -- or your fabric is not woven square -- washing the fabric before cutting is a good idea because it helps the fabric to square itself up on the grainlines -- if you sew the napkin and it is not squared up on the grainlines, it will never fold squarely or look quite right if when it is folded on your table and the corners do not match up nicely -- but then thats just me, if you don't mind it a bit off square at it works for you, then, well, that's just fine.Now once you have all sides pressed, open each corner and snip off the little triangle, from each folded line, just as shown in the photo below.Now, fold over the corner with the snipped off bit, and line up the folds making sure that the "fold " exactly crosses the corner where the two pressed lines come together. You can use the iron or just finger press each edge down so that it will form a mitered corner. Now do all four corners this way, steam press to make good sharp folds.Now fold under about 1/2 inch so that the raw edge of the fabric does not show. Press all around the napkin again, if well pressed, you may not need pins to hold the hem in place, but if you are unsure, use a couple of pins so that you do not loose the "hem".
Each corner should finish as shown above (a little blurry) then sew with a matching thread and a even straight stitch all around the napkin. If my explaination is not as clear as it could be, there are a number of other websites that are available to read through and quite probably explain something that I have miss out. After doing more than 40 of these napkins, I tend to not really think of each step along the way. Check out About.com and search for cloth napkins, or just google, home made cloth napkins and you will find a variety of ideas and methods for sewing this simple but very useful project. Each napkin from cutting to finished sewing, takes me about 20 minutes -- so you are spending more time than money on this project. If you buy finished good quality napkins in a retail store, they will cost about $15, if you get good quality cotton at sale prices you can make 4 napkins (1 meter or 1 yard plus 4 inches) for about $2.50 and an hour and a half of your time.
Work?
Way back in February, a friend showed me a technique for creating dinner napkins. She was in the process of moving from a wonderfully huge house, including at studio space where she held quilt and sewing classes. She and her hubby had decided to move into a smaller condo in the downtown area of the big city and she was clearing her stash, sort of...
I am a "quick study" so it only took a few moments to catch onto her method and now, I have so far sewed about 42 napkins, with at least that many to go.
So using her many fat quarters, she was making EVERYDAY dinner napkins. They take a bit of time, the hem is fiddly if you want it too look just right, but they are so worth it! I discovered an assortment of last years christmas fabrics at a fabric outlet store and bought 18 meters! 3 meters of each colour that I liked. Now I am in the process of making dinner napkins for my friends to use at Christmas time. I actually don't give Christmas gifts. These in fact would be a waste if given at the tradition time -- so about a week or so before I will be delivering these to my friends and family. Not all of the napkins are Christmasy, though. I thought while I am on this "kick" I may as well go into my own stash and do some 'clear-out' so I am making a few everyday dinner napkins ---- for ME!
Please Note: The napkins are made using metric measurements (again sort of) In Canada, our fabrics are sold in meters and centimeters, though most of our fabrics are American produced. A meter of fabric is just about 40 inches - technically just a bit under that, but most every shop counts the fabric meter at 40 inches. Therefore a fat quarter here measures about 22" x 20". When I cut my fabric to make these napkins, they are based on that meter length, so from on meter I can get 4 napkins that measure 20 inches x 20 inches before the hem is done (18"x 18") finished. In order for this size napkin to be made using the "yardage system" you need 4 more inches on the length of a yard, or if you want to make 12 napkins the same you need an extra foot on three yards. I think it is more economical to purchase that extra 1/3 of a yard and wind up with napkins just that little bit larger, than to cut off the 3 inches of waste from the yard length and almost 5 inches from the width. So if you buy American fat quarters (18" x 20") you have no choice but to use an 18" square and finish at 16", but if you buy American yardage, get the extra 4 inches to call it a meter and you can wind up with a full 20" square...I am a "quick study" so it only took a few moments to catch onto her method and now, I have so far sewed about 42 napkins, with at least that many to go.
So using her many fat quarters, she was making EVERYDAY dinner napkins. They take a bit of time, the hem is fiddly if you want it too look just right, but they are so worth it! I discovered an assortment of last years christmas fabrics at a fabric outlet store and bought 18 meters! 3 meters of each colour that I liked. Now I am in the process of making dinner napkins for my friends to use at Christmas time. I actually don't give Christmas gifts. These in fact would be a waste if given at the tradition time -- so about a week or so before I will be delivering these to my friends and family. Not all of the napkins are Christmasy, though. I thought while I am on this "kick" I may as well go into my own stash and do some 'clear-out' so I am making a few everyday dinner napkins ---- for ME!
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