Fold-It-Like-a-Tree Christmas Napkins Tutorial-ette & Giveaway

My friend Corky makes wonderful things that she sells at Craft Bazaars all through the year. So, when I decided to make things for the one night mini-bazaar at our church, I asked her what she would suggest. Since I was using Christmas Fabrics exclusively, she told me that the neighboring table at her last bazaar had sold out on Christmas Tree Napkins. And, when I looked puzzled, she explained that it’s a napkin that you fold to look like a Christmas Tree. Wowzers!

Well, alrighty then, I can do that – I’m all for selling out my elfish makes! Before I started though, I wanted to gather wisdom from bloggers who have made these and found lots of tutorials out on the interwebs. I chose to use the instructions I found on the Sew Caroline blog and was pleased with how nicely she laid out directions. Along with my tutorial-ette, you’ll also need to check out Caroline’s post – click here.

My Christmas Tree Napkins & How They Grew

1. While sorting through my Christmas fabrics, I found that I had lots of plaids and snowflakes to coordinate with other stashed fabric prints. Not surprising since I’m mad for plaid and love snowflake designs! I spent some time auditioning fabric combos since the napkins are two sided and settled on fabric pairs for about 40 napkins.
   
2. Caroline suggests using a large bowl to make a circle pattern. I used a plate, made an 18″ circle pattern and began to cut circles from my paired fabrics. The circles are cut in half since the napkins are half circles. As my fabric stash pieces became smaller, I folded my pattern in half and just cut half circles.
   
   

   

   
3. To save time when I cut the circle pieces in half, I folded them in pairs, laid a ruler along the fold and cut off less than an 1/8″. It didn’t have a significant effect on the size of the napkin and it was fast – one of the key requirements for what I was making!
4. With the exception of the finishing, all my sewing was done on the serger. I matched up all of my pre-selected fabric pairs, right sides together. My stitching began in the middle of the straight side of the half circle. Nope, no pins. Years of production sewing taught me that the quickest way to sew is without pins and I rarely use them for basic seams. Feel free to pin, though if you need to. I want your napkins to turn out well!
5. As I stitched around the napkin, I stopped when I was about 3″ away from where I began on the straight side. This left an opening to turn the napkin right side out. My apologies that there are no pictures on these steps. I really was thinking about you all, but I was thinking about speed more. Ha!
6. Pro Tip: I kept the stack of matched pairs next to me and stitched one napkin after the other, assembly line style. Once they were all stitched, I settled myself in front of a Christmas movie and turned them inside out. Then I put the movie on pause and pressed them all. That’s always the quickest way to get a lot of the same thing done!
7. Note for the Future: For the sake of speed and avoiding added expense, my napkins did not have trim around the edges. But, the ones I’ve seen with trim are adorable and you should definitely add that if you can. I know I will in the future! If you do, add it in between the two pieces before you do the stitching in steps 4 and 5.
8. Once the half circles were pressed, I did get my pins out and pinned the opening on the straight edge closed. With my wonderful Bernina Walking Foot on my sewing machine, I quickly top stitched 1/8″ from the straight edge to secure the opening. Again, for the sake of time, I did not stitch the curved edge, but you could. If you’re adding trim, I definitely recommend top stitching along the half circle curve, too.

Napkins at the Bazaar

And, they’re done! I priced the Christmas Napkins at 2 for $10 with sliding discounts for multiple purchases – 4 for $18, 8 for $32. You can read about my pricing policy in my Fabric Baskets post here.

On my table at the Bazaar, I folded a couple of napkins in the tree shape so shoppers would know how they work. I also had a quarter sheet of folding directions available so they wouldn’t get home and be frustrated. (There are great instructions in the Sew Caroline tutorial!) The rest I left folded in half and in half again so they formed triangles, but you could fold all of them into trees if you have room. My space was a bit tight, but I think they would sell better folded and look quite jolly! And, it’s all about the jolly, right?!

The Giveaway

Because I made LOTS of Fold-It-Like-a-Tree Christmas Napkins, I have several left, so I thought we’d have a giveaway. Sound good?! I have eight coordinating napkins set aside for the winner – here’s the details:

• You can enter just until Midnight PT, Friday, December 15th, so I can get them in the mail on Saturday and you’ll, hopefully, have them by Christmas.
• Enter by leaving a comment below about what you like to sew for Christmas – because we can always use more ideas!
• The winner will be randomly chosen the morning of Saturday, December 16th and announced right here. Stay tuned!
• And, I am SO sorry, but this one will have to be open just to my readers in the USA. I’ll include everyone in a future giveaway, though. Thanks for your understanding!

If you’d like to read my first Christmas Crafting post about my Quickly Sewn Fabric Baskets, click here. Otherwise, leave a comment to enter the giveaway, then off to the sewing space with you. Put your elf hat on and get to work, Christmas is coming SOON!

Holly Jolly to you!