How to make one-hour napkin curtains

Greetings! Earlier this week as I was filling you in on the details of our kitchen plan, I mentioned that I would be showing you how to make one-hour curtains out of these lovely napkins:

(Cue the ooohing and ahhhing.) Well, today is your lucky day.

These napkins caught my eye because 1. They were on clearance for $1.50 and 2. They have such a caauuuute pattern and the colors are perfect for harvest decorating. So I bought four and then arranged them on my kitchen table like so:

But then I got to thinking (as the hubs knows, this can be a very. dangerous. thing.) that these napkins are waaaaayyy too pretty to just serve as napkins. And besides, when do we have our table set up all purdy like this? Uh. Let’s be honest. It’s like, never. So I decided to make curtains out of these lovelies instead.

I started by lining three of them up like this:

I overlapped them at the seams like this:

Then I started sewing them together, which only required two seams because all the other sides were already hemmed (‘cuz they are napkins, silly, not raw fabric).  Mmmmhmmmm. Now you are starting to see why these babies only took me one hour.

I used the seam that was already on the napkin as my “straight line” guide. Tip: You are going to want to start sewing from what will be the bottom of the curtain because you can line the ends up perfectly. Not all napkins are exactly the same size, so when you get to the end of your seam, it may look something like this:

But that is OK because this part will be rolled over to make the rod pocket. (Now you get why it’s important to start sewing from the bottom of the curtain, don’tcha?)

When the three napkins are sewn together, they should look like this:

Now you’ll want to flip the “curtain” over and roll down the top (messy side) far enough to create a rod pocket. No need to measure; just eyeball it.

Then sew a seam down the whole length of the folded-over section.

Now … what to do about those two pesky seams in the middle.

I took some pretty, fall-colored satin ribbon and sewed two ends together to make a circle. I made two ribbon circles, then slipped them over the two seams like so:

And voila … One-hour napkin curtains. How do I know they only take one hour to make? Well … Last Saturday I had one hour to kill between helping baby sis put together table decs for her upcoming wedding and a baby shower for my cousin. What could I do with one hour? Make a harvest curtain, of course! ‘Cuz that’s how I roll, people.

There you have it. Enjoy. If you decide to do this project too, let me know! I’d love to see how your one-hour napkin curtains turn out.

P.S. This one-hour napkin tutorial is also being featured over at Home Stories A to Z this week. Check out this blog. It’s awesome. Plus Beth is a fellow Pennsylvania gal. Bonus!