Okay, housefully illiterate. Grew up with fine, high- quality paper disposable napkins- with their own wrought iron dispenser, no less.

I've been handing out dishcloths, and cleaning cloths, which is seriously nasty, if you think about it. The ones at the store all seem to be expensive and elaborate. At restaurants, they are using polyester....

What do you use for napkins? I know I see bandannas used in summer dinner parties, but that's presented as sort of a kinky down-market affectation.

So, do you make your own? What do you use? Regular shirt fabric? Bottom -weight fabric? Fancy quilting fabric? Linen? although that looks spendy.

How do you hem them? Deep hems? Rolled hems? One inch blind hems?

Wash them with diapers, or collect for a week, and soak overnight?

Do you use placemats, or do you make tablecloths?

Do you name them, like for towels, or not?

so many questions, so few clues.

ari

I use cotton/poly blend napkins that I purchased on clearance at Target. It was around $4 or so for a pk of 4. I bought 4 packs, which has been plenty.

I've tried homade napkins made of quilting cotton and they just don't hold up as well as I'd like.

100% cotton also holds onto stains...a little poly really helps stains not stick. Also, the napkins I bought just happen to be red, which I've found is ideal for not showing stains. If you think about it, the majority of staining foods are red.

I don't soak or save them up. The first several washes I washed them with old towels since they're red. But after they'd been washed enough that bleeding wasn't an issue, I just toss them in with any old laundry.

I sometimes use tablecloths, but mostly placemats or just a bare table with a runner or square quilty tabletopper in the center.

Name them? No. My towels don't have names either. I think I'm misunderstanding this part of your question. :lol:

I buy them from Mamas here on the board. I pay $12 or less for a dozen. We generally just use big cotton squares with serged edges. If they're crummy or only slightly soiled, they go with our clothes. I only soak/rinse if they've wiped up something goopy like hummus or peanut butter and then they go in with clothes.

Right now we have a glass table, so no tablecloths or placemats. We're going to pick up a wood toble today from craigslist, and I probably will use placemats. I'll need to buy some, I suppose.

I have a few I made, a whole bunch of linen and cotton napkins from garage sales, and 10 or so bandannas. We don't match, but we do have clean faces. Except for Rowan, of course.

I've gotten most of mine from my mom, who had more than she needed. Some of them were from sewing projects that didn't work out, so she used the fabric for napkins. I have a few that came with the 4 place settings of fancy flatware we got for our wedding-they are muslin and are going to become rags soon because they stain so easily. Definitely go with bright or dark colors. Patterns are good, too.
It just occurred to me that I need some more. We're going to be sharing a house with my in-laws as of the end of the week, and they have agreed to go along with many of my crunchy ways. The other day, my mil said, "don't worry about the paper towels in the kitchen, I'm just using them up." Don't want to end up using them as napkins because I ran out of clean ones!

I make our napkins (and tablecloths & runners). I like finding fabric at garage sales, thrift stores, and remnants at fabric stores. I keep within my main color "Palette" for them, so they seem to match even if they are all different fabric patterns. I also like buying the fat quarters on sale or at g.sales, because I can get 2 napkins per square. I usually roll and stitch the fabric (don't have a serger). I like the quilting fabric because it is heavier/stiffer than only the nice light calico types or linens. It also doesn't shrink as much, but I'm not too picky. I also use flannel scraps to make kids napkins. It is soft and absorbs more than just cotton napkins. And there are many cute patterns for the flannel, and I can find it everywhere. The flannel scraps also make good light wash cloths. I generally use 100% cotton for napkins and tablecloths.

I just wash them as we go with the regular laundry. I don't use light colored fabrics in general with 2 small boys, and nothing ever gets that filthy. If there is a major spill or ketchup explosion I will rinse it off in the sink right away, but it still goes in the regular wash.

I have some really nice cotton ones I got on clearance at Kohl's or maybe JCPenney. End of season sales are great. They make cloth napkins for seasons, too. ;) I have also made my own, usually do a rolled hem w/ my serger. I have used unknown scraps from JoAnn's, looked and felt like a cotton linen blend, and I have also used flannel. I hate polyester napkins. They're so scratchy and they smear stuff around instead of actually cleaning/absorbing. Yes, cotton ones do stain, but if I cared enough, I would keep a set of napkins for guests and use everyday ones. I don't care enough right now, but someday I'll have nice napkins and everyday ones. I also keep a bunch of cheap washcloths handy to wet and wipe off the kids. I have then in the bathroom downstairs (tiny townhouse) and they're used as wipes in the bathroom and for washing faces. Some people might think that's gross, but I wash them all at the same time, so what's the difference? Hot water of course. I wash napkins w/ diapers, towels, and whatever other whites will fit to fill the load. My youngest is potty training, so we don't have many diapers anymore.

My sister gave me some that she sergered for me. Other than that I use garage sale napkins. I really love vintage fabric, so we have several white embroidered napkins that I have picked up along the way. I usually give two people a napkin to share and we don't use any placemats or tablecloth. I have a ceramic tile kitchen table that is easy to wipe up. I wash my napkins with my whites. Even if I were't into doing my part for the environment, I would never buy paper napkins, it's a waste of $$$$.

I've had a lot of luck buying them at Savers. :drop: Yes, used. I like all cotton ones, and blends of cotton & linen, and that are not too large (so luncheon sized) and used ones are washed and soft, and therefor absorb more, and feel comfy. I just bought 8 yesterday, infact. Very very soft, and only .49/each. They are fluffy soft, even, and have that nice antique- white type patina that I love.

For general clean-up, I love ribbed bar cloths. YOu can get them cheap, or you can pay a small amount more at a WIlliams-Sonoma or Crate & Barrel place. They aren't costly. After washing and drying a couple of times, they soften right up and pick up everything in a swoop.

just the other day my DD informed me, while pulling out all the fat quarters that she "loved" at the quilt shop, that "these make great napkins mom". She got that idea from you Denise!

Personally I like linen, it seems more absorbent. Of course mine are totally random and what ever I have on hand at the time. I really need to make more, along with more cleaning cloths & FBW. For some reason there just are never enough.

Chole

My sister gave me some that she sergered for me. Other than that I use garage sale napkins. I really love vintage fabric, so we have several white embroidered napkins that I have picked up along the way. I usually give two people a napkin to share and we don't use any placemats or tablecloth. I have a ceramic tile kitchen table that is easy to wipe up. I wash my napkins with my whites. Even if I were't into doing my part for the environment, I would never buy paper napkins, it's a waste of $$$$.

Oh gosh, yes! I have *such* a weakness for old linens. My heart seriously races in antique shops, or church rummage sales, epecially. Oh! I have been hunting for the perfect vintage oil tablecloth cloth for so long now, I don't know what i will do myself if I ever find one. :help:

Okay, shopping-fu is not my strong suit, it turns out. I found silk napkins at Target. Beautiful, but I can't see them for everyday use. I didn't see every day napkins.

And, let's see, I found a dress, that I liked, and I bought it, and it looks like frumpy secretary city on me. A stranger held up a dress and said " This would look good on you." It's a cut and color and fabric and finish I would never, ever, ever choose. I took it home, and let it sit in my closet for a few days, until I figured out what to do with it. I need to wear a close- fitting tee shirt under it- I have exactly one closefitting tee- shirt- and it looks great and I look beautiful and feminine and confident. So now I need to find this stranger again. gah. These are the first two dresses in about six years, since I put on babies, and baby weight. I can't really picture what I look like, if that makes sense. And proportions have changed. Most clothes look really strange.

This really does relate. I found some really nice French jacquards advertised in a French magazine, for napkins and tablecloths, although I have the sneaking suspicion that if I read the language and the price, the words would look like "In your wildest billionaire dreams," or something like that.

I found some handwoven ones here in America. Laugh later- $70 for four.

I went to a housewares store in town. Laugh maniacally- $14 per napkin, for a plain napkin.

I don't see how quilting fabric can absorb anything- I've got some seriously messy kids, here.

I did find some (stained) muslin ones. They were so pretty. Their edges- they had a narrow zigzag edge, which had shapes on it- ogee points, rather than straight edges.

Purlbee is a blog attached to a website in New York. There is a set of napkin making directions that are really complete. I think they are to teach sewing. She used a tonally matched set of fat quarters, and then edged the napkins with a polka dot fabric binding. They are quite attractive.

She also has complete directions on how to make a round pincushion, which is good. That was going to be a future question. I don't like my red tomato, but my chinese men around the world one is too hard. I was curious what people stuff pincushions with. Cotton bolls don't really work, artificial batting doesn't seem to have enough heft. I wonder if wool batting compacts too much. She recommends natural cotton stuffing.

Tesoro's in Austin ( google, since I don't know how to link) has Mexican oilcloth. This is the stuff with the fruit and flowers and the saturated colors. There's a mini book about abuela's that has some of it on the cover. You can make really strong summer totes, and also lunch sacks, out of it. My friends have some that are painfully cute. That might work really well, with your vintage linens, since Mexican oilcloth is based on vintage designs. Abuela means grandmother in Spanish.

Named- monogrammed. word dyslexic at times.

I feel really silly about not knowing any of this. I'm not sure I'm alone on this, though. Like, Martha has articles about linen napkins- for linen that is $34 a yard. So it all seems insanely expensive. Or, say, all polyester jacquard--polyester holds oil- that's the main smell at midcentury vintage shops- body odor and oil held in ban-lon. I can kind of picture a "hand" and a "heft" that would work right, launder well, and be pleasant, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I know it exists. Pteh.

Like, the really heavy basketweave fabric used in buttondowns. You can buy a lighterweight, similar fabric at JoAnns, but it's not going to have the last ten years looking new ability, or the comforting heft and drape, and absorbancy.

Don't fabrics at thrift stores- aren't they rotting at the folds? I've always read that. Is it true, or only some of the time?

Thank you for answering,
ari

Not a bad price on napkins here (http://bumblebeelinens.com/) if you're looking for something more traditional.

eBay – damask linen, vintage linen and table napkin items on eBay.com. Find IT on eBay. (http://listings.ebay.com/Table-Linens_Napkins_W0QQfromZwwwQ2egoogleQ2ecomQQsacatZ 13955QQsocmdZListingItemListQQssPageNameZVINSQ3a13 955)

I've had excellent luck in used stores.

I make my own.

I used homespun fabric the first time and they lasted about 2 years with daily washing on sanitize with the towels. When those finally fell apart, I used white muslin and dyed them with procion dyes.

I cut into a big square (maybe 16x16) and rolled-hem serge the edges. Start on one side and when you get to the corner go one or two stitches past the edge, lift the foot, pull on the thread a bit and turn the corner to keep serging. Do that all the way around and leave a long tail to weave into the edges.

I buy 100% cotton -- I think they're meant to be bandanas, but they're in these beautiful batik prints -- at Hobby Lobby. They go on sale every so often for like 88 cents apiece.

They've held up great over the years.

Carla

Williams-Sonoma | Catalog (http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/l109/index.cfm?pkey=xsrd0m1%7C15%7C%7C%7C0%7C%7C%7C%7C% 7C%7C%7Cnapkins&cm%5Fsrc=SCH)

Mine are mostly thrift-store or garage-sale scavenged. We have a variety. The slipper polyester ones don't mop up much. We use thick woven cotton ones for real absorption. Some of mine are a cotton batik I picked up at Jo Ann's. Want to know how sad I am? I cut the yardage into tablecloth length and cut out the napkins and never finished the edges. LOL. They are totally raw on the edges. And it's been fine. For almost a year. :lol:

Cotton batik or quilting fabric works fine. The best are those thick cotton ones I found at Goodwill in Florida...wish I could find more of those! I usually pay something like 50c per napkin. Nothing extravagant! I won't even click on those expensive napkin links. ;)

garage sales, and a dozen or so that were wedding gifts. We don't use the wedding ones. The everyday ones are in some cases badly stained, but I'm not bothered. I guess we can use the wedding ones if we ever use cloth napkins with company. Usually, when family is over, it's paper. If I don't get the paper napkins out, the IL's use all my paper towels that I keep on hand for messes I don't want to use cloth on....

oh hey, if you're looking to make yourself some out of linen this is the best place

Fabrics-store.com: Online Shopping for Linen Fabric and Cottons (http://www.fabric-store.com)

Check their doggie bag and oops sections for deals. Use a pinking sheer to cut the squares and you might not even need to hem them. Or you could get adventurous and hand roll the hems on them. That's what I do for my collection of cloths for reenacting. Plus linen absorbs like crazy once it's been washed and dried a few times & it doesn't leave glass all streaky.

Chole

Wow.- Amazing shopping chi. Ya'll are good at this. Wow.

Okay, I bought a few batik bandannas at Hobby Lobby. I got a short set of muslin embroidered. A couple all- polyester stain release. And a cotton/poly restaurant napkin. None of it matches. It was all inexpensive. I am going to see which ones survive the ketchup bathing beauties. And which ones the kids like. It's an experiment.

I found dish-drying towels at Target, not where I expected them. Obviously, it's not so good to go to a store with three children all talking loudly. Really cute. I didn't buy them, but they were really cute. They were a red waffle weave with a rainbow colored trim.

And I went to the fabric store and grabbed the very nice, very stylish salesman who also sews costumes. I brought a Burda magazine, and I told him who I wanted things for, and I got my hand held through the whole thing. He found a beautiful peacock brocade for a shawl for my friend- she had beautiful blue eyes- a rainbow plaid for little girl's summer dress, a black linen/rayon for a dress for me, and a blush&white plaid boucle for a Chanel style jacket for my very professional stepmom. And a coupon : $21.76, total. He is planning a frockcoat, a waistcoat and a tie, for himself, for the peacock brocade, to be worn for different occasions. Very, very stylish. I went last night, and found one fabric, maybe, and I wasn't sure about it. So, it's really good to know I'm not good at this, and can get some help.

How do you do rolled hems? I've seen them, but I can't quite picture how they are made. Somehow you're supposed to roll them around a needle? I guess this doesn't work with quilting needles, does it? I use quilter's betweens to sew everything, but they are short. Can you use Dual Duty all- purpose thread? I've seen scarf instructions insisting on silk thread. But that would only be for silk scarfs, right?

Sublime Stitches has fashion-y embroidery designs- fender guitars, and martini cocktails, and lipstick tubes, and eiffel towers. I imagine a pair of lips, and some sartre quotes, and you'd have a dinner on the westbank set of napkins. Somehow Sublime Stitches is part of the Austin Craft Mafia, which is somehow connected to Vicki Howell's knit stuff, and somehow connected to a gallery doing embroidered portraits. I haven't any clue how it fits together, but there are websites.

And Tesoro's doesn't have pictures of Mexican oilcloth up on their website, but they can describe it on the phone. Not that that's much help. It's around $8/yard, and it's really durable. I see purses and diaper bags made of it, all over town.

Where do you keep them? In a basket on the counter, or in a cabinet?

ari

I keep mine in a square ceramic dish on the piano, which is in the dining room (of course, right?).

we use cloth 'wipees' just small flannel and velour serged together...made by emibeans. since we are often using them wet these wipe up the best imo.

they are in a basket on the kitchen counter..

and i have a small bin i put them in over top of the washer and throw them in with the wash when i am doing a load.

For a hand rolled hem.

First, lick your fingers. No, I'm serious. The moisture makes the roll happen. So get to licking.

grab the cut edge (works best with freshly straight cut fabric, no loosey goosie threads) between your thumb and index finger on your left hand if you're a right handed sewer.

roll the edge with your thumb, like your making the "give me money" sign. As the roll takes, move your fingers down the edge of the fabric. when you do this on linen the roll will hold itself pretty well for a fair length.

Once you've got a good length of roll, stitch. I use either a whip stitch, a blind stitch or even just a loose straight stitch, depending on how much of a rush I'm in. you can also roll by hand and run it under the needle on your sewing machine set to either a zig-zag or straight stitch. It comes out more of a narrow hem than a roll, but it looks nice & is fast.

I hand sew a plain linen cloth like this at every camp that I attend and you wouldn't believe how many people will just stand and watch. It's nothing special people, just a hunk of fabric, but they seem to like the show.

Chole

[QUOTE=Ariadne Umbrell;2588485]I don't see how quilting fabric can absorb anything- I've got some seriously messy kids, here.


I use the cottons for regular day to day napkins, but I use flannel for making kids napkins. It is soft and absorbs a lot more. I also keep a wicker basket full of washcloths in the kitchen for general use, and if there is a big spill or blowup mess at mealtimes I use that rather than a napkin for cleanup. :)

I either get them at thrift store or buy them from mamas here

I have quite a collection of heavy cotton napkins (edges are mostly double turned and hemmed) that I've picked up at second hand stores and garage sales. Occasionally new ones I find on sale. I adore vintage linens too, so I admit I have some pretties that I hardly ever pull out. I keep them for that big old craftsman dining room or victorian farm house kitchen I hope to have one day....

Most of our napkins are stained and there are all sorts of color combos - I agree that dark ones stay nice longer - but these are our everyday ones so we don't care. I have a couple sets of 'nice' ones (unstained ;) ) that I can pull out if we have people over, which is rare. I keep the everyday ones in a kitchen drawer and the nice ones in a storage container in the basement (all our storage is down there our kitchen isn't very efficient).

I try to have enough kitchen linens - towels, wash clothes, napkins - that I just keep them all in a separate basket in the laundry room and run them as thier own load about once a week or so. Try to hang them on the side of the basket for a day if they are wet so they don't get nasty. If I'm all caught up on laundry (ha!) I'll run them through with other clothes, but I am funny about that and don't really like to mix those things.

I use cut up old towels for cleaning cloths so there isn't a risk of confusing the two - and those I just wash with throw rugs or work clothes. I also have a pack of shop cloths that I love - they look different from everything else too and are a nice thin weight for cleaning around the house and esp. in the kitchen.

I do keep a roll of paper towels around for particularly gross or greasy things, but try not to reach for them much.

Late to this thread, but I am just making some napkins right now. I am making them in 9X9 inch squares. Kristan (MamaDoula) has a basket of ones that are about that size on her table and they work perfectly. She loves them... I think bArb made them for her... so I am following suit. We need some new ones badly... and the basket idea inspired me (although I keep finding fabrics I can quilt in the ones I am cutting for napkins... the joys of being a quilter. lol!)

Val

Really late on this...

Ours are various yellow stripes and prints, cotton. I despaired on ever finding what I wanted (and was just using dish towels), finally bought a set of 4 at a closeout store for $7.99(!) over a year ago, and since then I've found two sets at the thrift store; one was 4 napkins for $1 and one was 6 napkins for $2.

I like cotton and linen; anything poly seems to repel rather than attract. We have cotton damask "nice" napkins that were $2 each seven years ago, and we use those if we sit at the dining room table. Burgundy hides a multitude of stains.

At thrift store prices, I don't mind if they don't last forever. I don't buy seasonal napkins, just yellow prints to match the kitchen and breakfast nook. My cheapest thrift store set is my favorite, and in my mind they are my "nice" napkins and I love to use them.

I have some very nice fabric that would make lovely napkins...

Honestly though, it is a struggle everyday, at every meal, to get the boys not to use their shirts and pants to wipe their hands and faces. I usually still have my apron on and use that, and DH seems to magically not need napkins very often.

Napkin minutiae... can you tell I've finished Harry Potter 7 and DH is still reading?

Matching... I had never even thought. But Kimberly that is totally a type of matching I would do. Good idea! I will think on this as I sew today. :)

Val