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How to Sew Napkins with Mitered Corners

How to Sew Napkins with Mitered Corners

There’s nothing that will take your table from pretty to elegant more quickly than adding beautiful handmade cloth napkins to each place setting. And if you’re going to spend the time making them yourself, why not go the extra step of mitering the corners.

Your finished napkins will look polished and professional with none of the bulky corners that results from simply turning under the hem and then turning it under again. Not to mention, napkins with mitered corners are a must if you plan to up the elegance of your table setting even further by folding them into various shapes.

You’ll find all sorts of tutorials out there showing you how to sew mitered corners but in this tutorial, I’ll show you the easiest method I’ve found for getting perfected mitered corners every single time.

It only requires one extra, super easy step during the initial pressing process and one extra, equally easy step in the sewing phase.

If you’re new to sewing, this is a great project to expand your confidence.

Once you know this technique, you’ll find it useful for all sorts of items besides sewing napkins. Over the years, I’ve used it to make tablecloths, table toppers and furoshiki.

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How to Sew Napkins with Mitered Corners

Materials needed:

21 inches of 44″ wide 100% cotton fabric for every two 18″ napkins (finished size)

Matching thread

 

So if you want to make 6 napkins, you’ll need 63 inches… assuming your fabric is at least 42 inches wide not including the selvages. I would buy 2 yards to allow extra for shrinkage and squaring up.

For this tutorial, I purchased a little over 3 yards of Pearl Essence by Maywood Studio (all that was left on the bolt) on sale from my favorite local quilt shop and was able to make 10 napkins.

 

Please note: If you want to make larger napkins, you’ll need to adjust the yardage accordingly.

A 24″ X 36″ cutting mat and rotary cutter come in handy for this project. However, if you don’t have those, cut a piece of paper 21″ square and use that as a pattern.

 

 

Prewash your fabric using the temperature settings that you’ll be using when laundering the finished napkins.

Give the fabric a pressing to remove wrinkles.

Fold the fabric in half lengthwise, square up one end and cross-cut at 21″. If you’re making 6 napkins, you’ll need to make 3 cuts measuring 21″ each.

You can use the lines on your cutting mat as a guide or do what I did and use a 15″ and a 6″ quilting ruler butted up against each other as pictured below.

Fifteen inch and six inch quilting ruler measuring grey print fabric

Trim off the selvages on both sides, so that you end up with pieces that are 21″ X 42″.

Long six inch ruler placed on fabric to cut off selvages

Cut each 21″ X 42″ section into two 21 inch squares.

Stack them as you go.

Stack of fabric squares cut to make napkins with mitered corners

The key to this method of making napkins with mitered corners is all in the pressing.

Press under ½” on all four sides.

Nancy Zieman sliding ruler being used to use measure half inch fold under on napkin

Make sure to press the corners well.

Firmly pressing the corner and second side under half an inch

Turn under 1″ and press well. Repeat for the remaining 3 sides.

Clover sliding guide measuring one inch hem on grey print cloth napkin

Again make sure to give those corners a good press.

Iron pressing firmly on the corners of the additional one inch fold under

When you open out the corners, your creases should look like this.

One inch pressed seam opened to reveal creases to make the mitered corners on the napkin.

You’ll see that the pressing has resulted in a creased square in the corner.

Fold the corner down on the diagonal and match the 1″ creases on the square with the 1″ creases on the sides, as shown in the photo below.

Lining the corner creases up with the one inch side creases

Press the corner well.

Edge of iron firmly pressing the corner crease for the napkins

This creates the crease that you will use as a guide for sewing the mitered corners.

Distinct crease in the corner of the napkin

Fold the corner right sides together, matching the crease lines. Pin.

Napkin corner creases lined up and pinned ready to sew the mitered corner.

Begin with your needle down about 1/8″ from the outside edge (you’ll see why in a moment.) Using the crease as a guide, backtack to that outside edge, then continue sewing forward.

Backtack at the end of the seam.

Needle positioned to start sewing eighth inch from folded edge of fabric

As you can see in the photo below, when you trim the thread, any little thread tail ends will be neatly concealed inside the mitered corner.

Scissors trimming off the thread tails close to fabric on the mitered corner

Clip the corner on the diagonal and trim the seam to about ¼”.

Clipped and trimmed seam allowance on the mitered napkin corner

Finger press the seam open.

Finger pressed corner seam for napkins with mitered corners

Turn the corner right side out and use a point turner to form a nice sharp point.

Using a wooden point turner to make perfectly pointed corners on the napkin

Perfectly mitered corner on grey print napkin

Repeat the above steps for the other three corners of the napkin.

Give the corners and hems another good pressing.

All four corners of the cloth napkin mitered, pressed and ready to hem

Stitch close to the edge all the way around.

Topstitching close to the pressed edge of the fabric napkin

And there you have it… beautiful, handmade cloth napkins with perfectly mitered corners.

Stack of plates with napkins and cutlery

In the photo above, the napkins have simply been folded in half, pressed and then folded in half again and pressed.

But there are so many fun ways to fold napkins that you can try something new for each dinner party.

Here I’ve started to give them a handkerchief style fold.

Folding one of the grey print napkins with mitered corners

Look closely at the photo below and you’ll see how the mitered corners create a smooth finish to the handkerchief folds used on the napkin.

Place setting with grey print napkin with mitered corners in the center of white plates

You can even create a small pocket by folding down that last corner. Insert a bit of greenery and some baby’s breath and you’ve got a table setting that could rival that in any high end restaurant.

This is where those mitered corners really shine and make all the difference!

Greenery and babys breath in pocket of folded napkin

And how pretty would your Easter brunch table be if you added a couple of white tulips to each napkin.

Two white tulips and some baby's breath in the grey napkin pocket

Have fun making your napkins in different fabrics.

They can be made in elegant tone on tone fabrics such as the one used in this tutorial.

Or in fun novelty prints such as the bird print below.

Fan folded napkin with brass napkin ring on white plates

I do hope that you’ll give sewing napkins with mitered corners a try. And if you do, please be sure to take a photo, post it on your favorite social media and tag me so I can come see. I’m @supermomnocape on Instragram, @1SuperMomNoCape on Twitter and @1SuperMomNoCape on Facebook.

 

 

Another super easy sewing project you might like to make to add to your table are these One Hour Table Runners.

 

 

Be sure to save this tutorial for How to Sew Napkins with Mitered Corners so you can find it again by clicking on the Pinterest button underneath this post.

And of course, I’d love it if you shared it on Facebook and Twitter as well. 🙂

Collage photo of grey print cloth napkin with mitered corners and greenery and baby's breath in the napkin pocket all on a white plate

 

I would be so pleased if you chose to share by clicking on one of the buttons below!

14 Comments

  • Granddebbie
    July 7, 2021 7:14 pm

    This is the BEST tutorial I have ever seen! Your directions are so clear and the pictures are excellent for an old seamstress who needs to see the steps! You make me feel like I can sew these pretty napkins with mitered corners. Thank you…

    • Super Mom No Cape
      July 13, 2021 8:51 pm

      Thank you for your lovely compliment, Granddebbie. Have fun sewing your new napkins.

  • Carol
    July 12, 2020 8:30 pm

    Perfect tutorial! I haven’t sewn in ages and you gave me the confidence to start again!

    • Super Mom No Cape
      July 15, 2020 5:00 pm

      I’m so glad you like it Carol. Welcome back to sewing!

  • Jenny
    March 18, 2019 7:35 am

    What a wonderful tutorial. These napkins are so pretty at a place setting. Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday!

    • Super Mom No Cape
      March 20, 2019 10:36 am

      Thanks so much for your sweet compliment, Jenny!

  • Leanna
    February 26, 2019 10:32 pm

    Thank you very much for the tutorial. So easy to follow and they are a perfect practice project. Pinning

    • Super Mom No Cape
      March 6, 2019 7:00 pm

      Thanks so much Leanna! They’d be great practice project. Thanks so for sharing by pinning it.

  • Joy McDonald
    February 26, 2019 8:57 pm

    They’re so pretty! I am going to put them on my sewing & quilting bucket list 🙂 Thanks for the great tutorial! xx

    • Super Mom No Cape
      March 6, 2019 6:50 pm

      Thanks so much Joy!

  • Rachel Wright
    February 26, 2019 2:35 pm

    That’s a very useful bit of kit you had to help you!

    • Super Mom No Cape
      March 6, 2019 6:49 pm

      Yes, I love that Nancy Zieman sliding ruler. I use it a lot.

  • QuiltShopGal
    February 25, 2019 10:57 pm

    Best tutorial for mitred cornersI’ve ever seen. Beautiful napkins too!

    • Super Mom No Cape
      February 26, 2019 8:08 am

      Thank you so much QuiltShopGal! What an awesome compliment!

Comments are closed.