Thursday, September 9, 2010

A Martha Stewart Napkin

It's from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.  Martha "claimed" that this would produce a napkin with beautifully mitered corners.  I love nicely mitered corners but have always found them to be difficult.  Following the directions (for once), I ended up with this.


I love Martha.  This napkin is perfect.  Look at these beautiful corners!



It was so nice, I was afraid to embroider anything on it.  It took me weeks to decide whether or not to put something on it, more weeks to decide what design to put on it, and another week or two to get up the courage to actually do the embroidery.  I don't know why.  This napkin was so easy to make.  You iron it, sew on a few of those creased lines, and do some straight stitching around the edge.

I finally decided on a simple floral design for the embroidery because I'm a bit tired on initials right now--I overdosed on my towels.  I used a slightly off-white on the bright white cloth.  I'm not sure that the placement is conventional.  I folded the napkin the way I would use it and put the design on the top.  It is off-centered when the napkin is open--one of the reasons I chose white-on-white.

I used a fabric from Joann's that looks like linen.  It washes beautifully.  No ironing needed at all.  I've had linen napkins before.  They were lovely but HAD to be ironed.  I like ironing, but who has the time especially around the holidays when you will most likely be using them?  Now I just have to finish the other 17 I want.  I know better than to put down an exact date for them to be finished here.  Life has an annoying way of interfering with my well-made plans.

I really do love Martha.  I want to be in her audience.  I don't want to meet her, though.  For some reason, I find her completely intimidating.  Could it be her awe-inspiring talents and boundless energy?  Yes, I know she has a hoard of people coming up with lots of ideas, too.  Martha did, however, create the whole venture and keeps it going strong.  Great napkin, Martha!  I just know she reads my blog ;-}

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