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| Photo courtesy of: A Pretty Cool Life |
This is another tutorial from a Christmas project I did. I made a napkin + placemat set for one of my sisters, inspired by this tutorial for the placemats found on Pinterest. Sadly, I didn’t get photos of the finished products (I think I was just so happy to be done that I completely spaced it!), but I didn’t get enough photos of the napkin hemming to show you my own process for it, since the tutorial I had followed focused on the placemats, and I found myself trying to figure out how to make nice crisp corners for the napkins. Thankfully, the process is really pretty easy.
First, each napkin measured 15.5″ x 15.5″, unfinished. The end result was 15″x15″.
After cutting each square of fabric, I ironed a half-inch hem on all four sides.
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| A view of the pressed edges. |
Then, at the sewing machine, I folded the hem in twice. Basically, I just took the raw edge, folded it to meet the pressed line, then folded over once more. This gave me a 1/4″ hem. I sewed close to the inner folded edge.
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| Starting to sew the first edge. |
Before reaching the end of the side, I stopped, opened the side I was working on at the bottom corner (corner facing me), then did the double-fold on the side that I was going to be sewing next. Once this double-fold was done, I re-folded the side I was working on.
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| Folding the bottom edge. |
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| Result after folding bottom edge, then refolding side edge. |
You’ll see what happens: a nice, clean corner fold that doesn’t catch on the machine as you’re sewing down and then rotating at the corner to keep sewing.
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| Keeping the corner secure. |
I held on to that edge very firmly with one hand while keeping the double-fold on the side I was sewing folded with the other hand. It sounds more tricky than it was.
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| Next edge! |
Rotate at the corner, and continue with the same process for all four edges!