For the last year or two I really wanted to jump on the ‘x goals before x age’ bandwagon. 35 seemed to be my magic number as its the next major birthday I get to celebrate (let’s not even talk about how that’s possible). After making several lists with very lofty goals, I decided I didn’t want to create a list that had the potential to leave me disappointed in myself on my 35th birthday.

Then I got super into sewing (meaning I took a four week class and declared it my new most favorite hobby that I would never get bored with). The 35 idea came back and seemed more manageable. I could do 35 sewing projects in 2.5 years. And if I can’t, then I can’t. It’s just sewing. If I’m not longer into it at that time, I probably won’t even remember I had this 35 projects idea.

Thanks to a crazy deal at Target, I brought home a sewing machine over the weekend. I ended up going with a much more basic machine than I had originally planned. It has my must-haves, was in-stock at Target, and is significantly smaller than the machine I had previously thought about. Saving $40 was a bonus, too. More money for fabric!

I had fabric left over from my sewing class and decided to make cloth napkins on Saturday night. It is wild in the Martin house these days.

For some fabrics I only had enough left to make one napkin. The four of these together would be fun for a spring brunch. Plus, it’s usually me eating alone or just Greg and me. Cloth napkins are already a step up from us grabbing a paper towel, so I’m not too worried that they don’t all match.

This free tutorial was super easy to follow and clearly explained each step. I quickly found that there is way more ironing than sewing when making cloth napkins. 

These are my favorite napkins and I wish I had more fabric to make a full set. They scream summer and will look perfect with our outdoor dishes. I might need to buy more.By the end some of my corners looked really good. 

And some look like this.

I’m going to consider the cost of this project to be $0. I had the fabric and thread on hand from projects for class, so I bought nothing new. In terms of time, I started around five pm and finished around eight. In between I also ate dinner, changed laundry, watched an episode of HIMYM with Greg, and did some house cleaning. If I had to guess I would say it took me about two hours to make the napkins, but they went significantly faster as I got the measuring and ironing down.