Wedding Blog
… I’ll be busy making 120 cloth napkins. No matter that I have little sewing experience, and have never sewn a napkin in my life. It’s a basic square, right? Um, right. This is just another one of my crazy* ideas.
(*I prefer to think of them as “inspired”, not “crazy”.)
You see, I’ve been inspired by other bees — Mrs. Beagle posted about making cocktail napkins for the guests at her wedding, and then incorporating them into a quilt after the wedding. I thought it was a very cute idea, but figured I wouldn’t have the time or the dedication to pull something like that off. Although, I had to admit, the quilt she posted as her inspiration was gorgeous:
Then I saw a different post by Miss Daschund about how she, too, was planning on making napkins for her wedding. She said that she was planning on using the quilting project for after the wedding to keep her busy and avoid “PWD,” or Post-Wedding-Depression.
Hmm, maybe these bees might be on to something… a project for after the wedding — what a novel concept! Mr. French Fries has asked me, while embroiled in the throes of another crafting/DIY project, ”What are you going to do with all of your time after the wedding is over?”
I figure that this is a good alternative to bouncing off the walls.
With the help of MOH French Fries and Mama French Fries, we determined that we can get roughly 120 napkins out of around 30 yards of fabric. Armed with a few 40% off or 50% off coupons for Jo-Ann fabric, this should be a relatively cheap DIY project with — I hope — a decent impact on our wedding decor.
Here’s a sampling of the fabrics that I’ve gathered so far. I’m going for similar in color tone, not necessarily pattern. The second fabric from the right has some additional detail to it, but you just can’t see it very well because of my shoddy camera skillz.
Dad and Mama French Fries have generously helped me with this project (and other wedding projects to be announced) by giving me an early birthday present — my very first sewing machine! I couldn’t very well sew this many napkins by hand (just thinking about it gives me a cramped hand), so this was extremely generous of them. I’m simultaneously excited and intimidated by the sewing machine, but I know that soon, using it will be like old hat. Or maybe “old napkin”. Lame, I know.
MOH French Fries took the napkin idea one step further, though. (That’s part of the reason that I keep her around — for her right-brained creativity and her ability to talk me off the ledge.) She suggested buying fabric pens to put on the tables so that people can sign a corner of their napkins, in lieu of signing a guestbook. Such a great idea! We can put out small signs on the tables (along with the candy jar signage, our wedding is going to be extremely informational!) explaining to guests what I’m planning on doing with the napkins, and requesting that they sign them, give advice, etc. Awesome. Then, Mama French Fries suggested monogramming the front of the napkins with my initials, so that people knew that I made each and every one of them by hand. Another awesome idea. I don’t know what I would do without MOH French Fries and Mama French Fries helping me with this wedding. I’d probably be laying in a ditch along the side of the road, mumbling to myself and vacillating between the benefits of dupioni silk and silk shantung. But I digress.
This is shaping up to be one of the biggest DIY projects for the wedding, and definitely the largest craft project that I’ve taken on to date. So, if anyone out there has any pointers that they could share, I’m all ears!
Have you been to a wedding where a significant portion of the decor was DIY? Do you think a lot of the guests noticed?
|
Share this post: If You Need Me This Winter…
i would practice making some of the napkins before you drop a bunch of dough on all the cloth. I’m still surrounded by abandoned DIY project materials from my wedding! if i knew now what I did then….
Hi, my name is Mrs. Gloss and I sewed 135 napkins for my wedding. I cannot even stand to look at my sewing machine anymore. By far the most time consuming project.
Ugh, I want to do this so bad! I love the idea of making napkins because 1) they’ll be unique and pretty and 2) you won’t have to pay a rental fee! But I have literally never used a sewing machine before… so I don’t know, don’t want to sew my hand or anything… 
I think this is a really cool idea. As someone who can’t sew at all (like I don’t even know how to replace a button), I can’t imagine doing this much work. But I think it’s going to be awesome!
I really love this idea, unfortunately it is MUCH too involved for me! I’m a bit too lazy for the napkin sewing/quilt making. I can’t wait to see how everyone’s quilt turns out so I can live vicariously thru you all!
Those sounds wonderful! I love the idea of having every guest sign his/her napkin! Can’t wait to see it all come together!
I was planning on doing this as well. I was unable to finf the right fabric/color/style when I was looking at the cheap rentals, so I decided I would just buy the fabric and try to make 200 napkins on my own. While I was at Jo-anns (coupon in hand) the lady that was helping meoffered her services. She sounded like a sewing guru. She said she would charge me 20 bucks to cut out all 200 of them (18×18) and then $60-80 if i wanted her to fold under and sew all the edges. For me, at that point… $80 was definitely worth the thousands of hours (and headaches) I wouldn’t have to spend trying to get these babies done. And, I can hardly sew, ha, so it was very appealing. Not sure what your budget is - but just a thought that you may want to ask around for their help. Could save you lots of time AND the possibility of a project half completed.
Very cool project! Unfortunately, I don’t have an ounce of sewing ability in my body… luckily I do have some very able family members! This would be a project I would love to do… if only! So cute, I can’t wait to see how they turn out!
I really, really love this idea, and if I already owned a sewing machine, I’d think of tackling it as well… so it’s probably a good thing I don’t own one. 
But no, I have never been to a wedding with a lot of DIY details. No one else I know reads Weddingbee.
@nina: I bought a remnant of fabric (actually the striped one in the photo above) and tested out my technique before investing time/money somewhere foolish. Lucky for me, it worked out and my skillz are getting better!
What a great idea! I love that you will be using these as your guest book! Very clever! I however was born without an ounce of sewing or baking ability so we’ll be using the napkins @ our venue.
A beautiful idea, I just know that I wouldn’t have that kind of patience. Looking forward to seeing more photos of your project!
I am not a master (I’ve made a quilt though) but you may want to think about your design before asking people to write notes in lieu of a guestbook. I love the inspiration quilt but you would not see the notes unless everyone wrote in a long narrow space. Maybe you could instruct everyone to write in the middle and use small squares or something. Good luck, I love this idea and if I were to tackle it, I think I would just use pinking shears to make the napkins a no sew project.
Lovely idea to turn part of your wedding into something you can use and see all the time ^_^
Just a thought - if hemming 120 napkins might be a bit time-consuming, you could get some pinking shears and simply cut sheared edges!
http://woundedchef.blogspot.com/2008/09/no-sew-napkins.html
The jagged edges help with fraying, so at the wedding themself they’d still look smart, and you’d be sewing them afterwards anyway!
I admire your willingness - I spent about 9 hours total seeking out my napkins from sale racks! But the napkins were so much fun! They really added to our wedding’s decor and uniqueness!
You can see photos of the napkins in use here: http://nolanandcamille.blogspot.com/2009/10/favorites-color.html
and here: http://nolanandcamille.blogspot.com/2009/07/wedding-style.html
Good luck, sounds like a fun project!
such a great idea! I love quilting…. I definitely want to incorporate some unique fabric into the wedding that I can make into a quilt later!!
@slicey19: Good tips! I’m not planning on using that quilt pattern for my post-wedding quilt…probably something extremely simple with just blocks. (I’m not that advanced!!!)
@sally: I considered the pinking shears route…but I fell in love with a mitered corner napkin pattern that I found (that seems simple…for now!).
Simply brilliant.
I am a quilting novice, and it helps so much that whatever you’re quilting has some kind of emotional tie. I would have surrendered months ago had I not been using my grandmother’s frayed and stained quilt as my inspiration and pattern!
I made napkins for a bridal shower I threw this summer. They turned out great, but don’t fool yourself, it is a time consuming project. I only made about 20 and I was so ready to be done with them; I can’t imagine needing to do, what, 100? maybe more?
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but making a quilt is a lot of work and does take some amount of skill. In fact, a block quilt requires a great amount of precision. Just make sure that you know what you’re getting into! I have a few years of sewing experience under my belt and even this is a project I would be leary of tackling, just for the sheer sake of time.
that is a great idea to have your guests sign the napkins before you make them into a quilt! If my aunt was still alive when I got married, I might have asked for her help with this (she taught me how to quilt many years ago)
Just a tip: I bought napkins for my wedding and in all the hubbub of leaving for the honeymoon, forgot to designate someone to take the napkins and wash them immediately. They only sat for 2 days before my mom found them and threw them in the wash, but in those two days the stains from the food set in just enough to not come out. I had to throw half of them away because the grease spots made them un-useable.
I LOVE this idea. It’s my most favorite thing I’ve seen on Weddingbee ever, and each time it comes back up it just reconfirms it for me.
That said, when I look at the amount of sewing for each napkin and then considering that I’d be just sewing it into a quilt anyways-I think I’m going to go with the pinking shears route. Unless I make some new friends that know how to sew….
Good luck on the ambitious project, let me just give you the best tip for napkin sewing. Get a hot iron and heavy spray starch. It seems like a completely unnecessary step but ironing and starching your folded napkin edges before sewing makes the sewing a bjillion times easier. I always just assumed my Mom was being an annoying perfectionist, but it makes it so much easier.
Wow- once again I totally agree with Miss Moonbeam- IRON, IRON, IRON. As a proficient seamstress I can’t stress enough how important the prep is- the cutting, folding, ironing etc… Running your napkins through the machine is the easy part! AND I’m so loving this idea that I just may be doing it for our September 2010 wedding. Any reason to collect beautiful fabric! Way to go and good luck! Can’t wait to see the final product!
If you wash the napkins after they are used wont that affect the signatures? Maybe not if you used the write kind of fabric pens, but I would test that out first to make sure you arent goign to lose the signatures in the wash.
I am a moderately experienced quilter…taught by my favorite expert…grandma! I love this idea and am in the process of finishing two signature quilts. I had them signed for my parents retirement. The one challenge you will have is making sure that the person signing is leaving room for you to join the fabrics together at the edge. You actually could consider using pinking shears to finish the napkins rather than make a formal folded edge. You will also want to invest in some fine tip fabric pens… if you go to a quilting shop you should be able to find some… I think that sakura markers are really good… you can also find them at a better craft store. I noticed someone commenting about food stains… I also collect antique linens… Biz is a wonderful product for removing old stains! I have found linens that are terribly stained… and set… that have been cleaned fairly easily just by soaking…sometimes for days in biz… you may need to change the water… rinse and add fresh water and biz… but the end result is terrific!
Oooh, I love that fabric! I wish I weren’t terrified of sewing.
Really clever idea–I agree about making sure you have the right kind of pens so that the notes don’t wash out. Also, you’ve probably already thought of this, but you might want to make sure that people know they’re supposed to write you well wishes before they start using the napkin to eat dinner with.
I’m doing this for my wedding too, except I’m going the pinking shears route since I’m going to cut off all my hems to make a quilt after anyways. I love this idea though and I can’t wait to have a lasting piece of our wedding in my house!
my wedding is shaping out to be quite heavily diy. but i just want to make sure we’re on budget plus i love all the little touches i’ll be able to add
We had a rustic wedding so I felt totally fine just cutting my custom napkins with pinking shears. Just make sure to wash the fabric before cutting so you don’t have to give them a haircut before the big day. They looked great and we got lots of positive feedback on them.
Okay, silly question… but will using pinking shears stop them from fraying?? Completely? But not to the extent that sewing them will… right? Guidance please! : )
I love this idea!! but I’m definitely not trying it 
I think I already have enough sewing going on
I can’t wait to see your napkins, the fabrics you chose are so pretty!!
Pinking shears will definitely help them from fraying. If you don’t want to fold over all the edges (probably the biggest pain, since you may want to double fold them to hide the edge, you can surge them. I don’t have a serger, but actually got a foot that fits onto my machine that will cut the edge and “serge” it for me. Serge it into long strips the width of the fabric, then use the serger/machine to cut it short ways. That will cut the time down dramatically.
I did something like this for a science project when I was younger. It wasn’t napkin sized and was only 3×3 squares, but I had over 100 of them.
good luck!
[...] I outlined previously how we’ll be making cloth napkins for our wedding reception. I’ve recruited MOH French Fries and Mom French Fries, both of whom are well-versed in the sewing arena, to help me with this project. Luckily, I think that between the three of us we’ll be able to finish the project with our sanity still intact. (Fingers crossed!) [...]
| Visit our sister sites | Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Fertile Thoughts Infertility Support |
Miss French Fries, Milwaukee
Age and Occupation: 27, Paralegal
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Investments Advisor
Engagement Date: September 20, 2008
Wedding Date: June 2010
Venue: Ceremony: Catholic Church, Reception: Hotel Ballroom
About Me: I'm a Midwestern girl who longs to live in a warmer climate (my feet would be happy in flip flops any day!). I love travel, impromptu napping, grilled cheese sandwiches, my iPhone, singing with reckless abandon in my car, and Mr. French Fries.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
Latest Gallery Pics