Monday, December 19, 2011

The Sixth Day of Christmas Crafts: Cloth Lunchbox Napkins

Have you ever noticed that going green goes hand in hand with being frugal? Going green saves green in a ton of ways, we have a drawer full of plastic containers that I use in the kids' reusable lunch boxes, so I never need to buy lunch bags and almost never need to use plastic baggies when packing their lunches. We have reusable juice boxes that get washed at the end of the day instead of individual (and expensive) prepackaged juice. Another way that we have gone green in our house was by replacing our paper napkins with cloth. Recently I decided to take it a step further and make cloth napkins for their lunch boxes! I found fabric to coordinate with their boxes and in about 20 minutes had two napkins to use in Mistress's lunch box.

I used two half yards of fabric that coordinated with each other. Cut two 18" squares from each fabric and put one of each right sides together. Pin around the edges.
Starting at the bottom, stitch around the edges 1/4 inch in, leaving about 4 inches open to turn it right side out.
Turn right side out, making sure to use a point turner in your corners, press. Pin the opening closed and press the hem in place.
Press flat.
Now top stitch around the edge, making sure to stitch the opening closed.
Pull your threads through, tie them off, and weave them in. If you need a refresher on how to weave threads in, check out my tutorial here.
Press again, and fold.
And now Mistress has two napkins to use for lunch. They are easily washable, and will pay for themselves in a short amount of time! I still have four more to make, and my kids will be the envy of all their friends at lunch!

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