Enjoy this guest post today from Annie! - M
Handmade Cloth Napkins and Un-Paper Towels are an easy, low-cost DIY project perfect to give as a gift this holiday season! They can be made in any fun print you desire, they save money by not having to buy paper napkins and paper towels at the store and they help you live a little greener by reducing the amount of paper you consume!
I started making these for our family last spring and I honestly cannot tell you the last time I purchased the paper equivalents at the
grocery store! With the investment of a little time and fabric, you can make a set in under two hours. I used to buy the veri-size paper towels so we could tear off half of one if we didn’t need a full size so our preferred cloth size happens to be those same dimensions of 12" x 6". We use our cloth napkins and un-paper towels interchangeably but you can easily make separate sets and sizes if you prefer.
The style I prefer to make have a 100% cotton fabric on one side and a 100% cotton terry towel material on the other side. The terry towel material helps with absorbency when cleaning up spills and also has texture so it grabs up the mess which we love for mealtimes. I could not find a lightweight terry material at our local fabric store so have been purchasing packs of kitchen towels at a local
discount store and they work perfect.
Supplies needed:
- 100% cotton fabric in any print
- 100% cotton terry towel material
- thread
- sewing machine
- fabric cutting scissors
Decide what size you would like to make. If using a kitchen towel, you can easily just fold the towel in half or quarters and cut with no need to make a pattern. If you have terry towel fabric you will need to cut out a basic pattern in the size and shape you desire. For this tutorial I used kitchen towels in a variety of colors.
Since the kitchen towels I used were the perfect size I wanted when folded in half, I simply cut them in half. Since I have a serger there was no need for me to cut off the hemmed edge of the kitchen towel since the machine does that for me. If you have a standard machine and will be zig zagging the edges, cut the hem off the edges with pinking shears to help prevent fraying.
Cut a matching piece of cotton fabric for each terry towel piece. This can be done by laying the terry towel piece on top of the cotton fabric and cut out the cotton side.
Cut out a cotton front and terry towel back for each napkin/unpaper towel. Match the cotton and terry towel pieces with wrong sides together. Sew around the edges by serging or with a basic zigzag stitch.
Since I use a serger, I sew rounded corners so I can sew in one continuous stretch and the final product looks nicer. If you sew with a
standard sewing machine you can easily sew a standard pointed corner or round the corners, whatever your prefer. Trim threads when done. If you want to make a large full size paper towel or large cloth napkin like you would find in a restaurant, sew a large X with a standard straight stitch across each one to help prevent bunching when laundered.
Tie up your set with a pretty string and it is ready to be gifted! We store ours in a basket on our kitchen counter so you could also purchase a basket to go with your gift set of cloth napkins and un-paper towels.
Get even more frugal DIY project ideas on Little House Living!
Do you already use cloth napkins or cloth "paper" towels?
Annie lives in western Montana with her husband, 1 year old daughter
and two lazy dogs. Annie is a frugal, nature loving, simple living, work from home mama with an Etsy shop. She also blogs at MontanaSolarCreations where you can find DIY projects, recipes, natural living tips and stories about their outdoor adventures in Montana.
Disclaimer: This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been meaning to do this for ages but haven’t found the time. Great idea!
I’ve started using cloth napkins and towels instead of paper some time during university but I use(d) worn out cotton or linen clothes and sometimes towels lightyears beyond their prime which I just quickly run through the machine to keep from fraying/falling apart.
This is a great idea. We already use kitchen towels instead of paper towels but we have yet to replace the paper napkins. Thanks for the tip.
Thank you for this item. I prefer using fabric kitchentowels above paper ones. I just did not make them myself because of the usual sizes. But you have made me think again. I have nearly 40 years old towels that are fraying (almost married 40 years) and I thought I would use them as floorcleaning fabric. but… really, apart from the fraying they are too good for that use. Now I know what I will do, jst serge them into kitchentowels. They have to be changed so often and I think they will do for a year or two. There is even one towel I got when buying my weddingdress! Who would want to clean dirty floors with such a present? Now I will thankfully use them and watch out for perfect towels in the goodwill to make presents. Those towels often have a chewed on corner (dog, child?) or stain in some part and are overcheap.
Paper towels are still used to clean up animal messes; no way am I using cloth to wipe up dog and cat accidents! For everything else, I use cloth.
I use towels I just cut up. I don’t have a sewing machine so I haven’t been able to hem them yet. I really need to get my grammys. Laundry day is fun.
My mom has a rag bag made from old clothes and so do I. One day I realized I had way more towels than needed and decided to just do it. I use them for everything.
I have a large collection of dish towels (about half microfiber). I use them for everything-counters,floors,stove, windows-everything. I haven’t had a paper towel in my house in several years. I never thought of making my own towels-they certainly would look more like a set and less like a disorganized heap
I use them instead of the swiffer covers also… made to swiffer size… Just mop and wash the rags
I also use the bigger picnic sized heavy napkins, like BBQ sized, for placemats when the grandkids are here… Seems to just be more festive and keeps the mess to a minimum when they are here – and easy clean up of crumbs or milk spills
I have this project bookmarked! I’ve been using towels for my children in place of napkins or paper towels, but I think it would be fun and satisfying to use cloths that I created myself. And these WOULD make great gifts! Thanks for the directions!
Question? DO you change out your napkins with each meal?
We usually change out every other day and my sister said I am disgusting….
thoughts?
We do only use them per meal just because we don’t really have a place to put them to remember whose is whose. (Mine are the same colors.)