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Fabric napkins are quick and easy to make with your serger. These napkins are fun and colorful and make great gifts.  Napkins are a great project for beginners wanting to try something other than finishing seams with the standard four thread overlock.  The three thread rolled hem or the three thread narrow hem are two common serger finishes for napkins. Cotton batik fabric works well for napkins, as it looks the same on both sides and it “rolls” well on the serger. 

Napkins vary in size, depending on the intended use.  A 10” square napkin would be considered a beverage size and a 22″ square napkin would be a generous dinner size. One great thing about making napkins is that you can make them any size you like!  Here is a list of napkin sizes and quantities you can make from 45” wide fabric.

Napkin Size Before Hemming (your napkins will be a little smaller after hemming)

Napkin Size	Quantity	Fabric Yardage (45” wide)
12” square	9	1 yard
14”-15” square	9	1 ¼ yards*
18” square	4	1 yard
20” square	4	1-1/8 yards
21-22” square	4	1 ¼ yards*

*width of 45” wide fabric varies between 42”-45”, so napkin size may vary slightly. 

Supplies:

• 45” wide cotton batik fabric – refer to chart above for needed fabric
• 3 spools of coordinating serger cone thread 
• Seam sealant such as Fray Check
• Serger and accessories
• Scissors

For this tutorial, I chose to make my napkins about 14” wide finished. I used 30” each of three different 45” wide batik fabrics for my tutorial, for a total of 18 napkins ( 6 of each color).  I did not prewash my fabric – the extra “starch” helps it to feed smoothly through the serger.

Fabric Prep:

Take your batik fabric and tear it into the desired size squares. I think this is much easier than marking and cutting. You end up with perfect squares because this fabric tears on the grain. Snip into the fabric about an inch in each place you would normally start to cut, and then tear. It is that easy.  See Sample Cutting Diagram.

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Serger Set Up:

Now set your serger up for your desired stitch using your instruction manual.  I choose to do a 3 thread narrow hem on these napkins but the 3 thread rolled hem would work well too.  I also chose to use Maxi Lock thread – a standard serger cone thread. Be sure to use a scrap of fabric to test your stitch settings before your begin serging your napkins.

Here are the stitch settings I used on my Babylock Evolution Serger for a 3 thread narrow hem (your settings may be different).  Stitch selector = C, right needle only, stitch length = 1.5 (rolled hem range), width = M, differential feed = 1, knife engaged. (rolled hem would be stitch selector = D, everything else the same.) 

Look closely at the drawings below and see if you can tell the difference between the three thread narrow hem and the 3 thread rolled hem.  Which one are you going to choose for your napkins?

The difference between a narrow hem and rolled hem is that one is balanced and the other is unbalanced. In the rolled hem the upper looper thread gets pulled to the back, so the upper looper thread covers the entire edge of the fabric and very little of the lower looper thread shows, and therefore is unbalanced. The narrow hem is balanced because the upper looper thread and lower looper thread meet at the edge of the fabric and cover evenly. The narrow hem is a little flatter than rolled hem, but both hems fold the raw edge of the fabric to the underside of the stitch.

Serge Those Edges:

Trim a little fabric as you serge each side, just skimming it with the blade. Narrow and rolled hems look best with a fresh cut.  Serge one side and chain off at the end. Cut the chain and then turn your fabric and serge the next side. Refer to my video on Quick & Easy Serged Napkins if you would like to see the serger in action making a narrow hem. https://youtu.be/tIqxIKmrY_g

After all edges are serged, put a drop of seam sealant on the front and back side of each corner and let dry. 

Then trim off the tails and your napkins are ready to use or gift to friend! Enjoy!