This love of napkins started way way back when I inherited a linen table cloth and napkin set from my aunt. It had some embroidery on it in grey and it was just a so so design in my opinion but there was something about those napkins that I loved.
Those napkins became the pillows that you see below and I have not stopped making pillows from fabric napkins since then.
To make the grade the napkins have to have the following:
- Be attractive to me whether it's the fabric or the texture of the fabric
- No stains because once there is a stain it's so hard to remove or should I say impossible and I'd really rather be designing and sewing then trying to get a stain out.
- A good size that would translate well into a pillow. Some are just too small and some are too big. Perfect to me is an 18" x 18" napkin.
- The napkins need to be uniform in size so that when I size them up together one isn't bigger than the other, unless I'm making a different fabric back then it doesn't matter
I loved these napkins the minute I saw them and the seller at the flea market knew what I wanted them for but was surprised that I didn't care that they were a polyester blend fabric. Nope didn't care because the texture of the material and that little stitch border was calling my name. Size was a perfect 18" x 18". I got the set of four napkins for $3.00.
First up was finding some images that I could iron on to the front of the pillows. Found some great ones at The Graphic Fairy site and also purchased some on Etsy.
The Transfer Artist Paper from Amazon is my go to product for iron on. This product works great!
Because I loved the look of this fabric I made the backs of the pillows in linen fabric with the envelope style for ease of inserting the pillow so I could get four pillows instead of two.
Here's a closer look at the texture of the fabric and the stitch on the edge that I love.
Stay tuned for my next post and I'll give you some easy instructions for making your own fabric napkin pillows.
