In preparation for Christmas, here is an easy quilting project for a cute little Christmas Napkin Ring with ‘charm’ which can be made from scraps of Christmas Fabric. You will get 8 small rings from this project.
Requirements
- 12 strips at 1.5 inches x 10 inches from scraps of Christmas Fabric. (I used 6 different fabrics, so that there were 2 strips of each fabric).
- 4 strips of backing fabric 13 inches x 2.5 inches (cut when ready to apply to ensure snug fit)
- 1 piece of cotton wadding approximately 13 inches x 10 inches, to be cut to size when you have completed the front panel.
- 104 Inches (2.64 meters) of contrasting Ric-Rac (optional)
- Contrasting thread for free motion quilting (or for quilting lines).
- Cotton Thread
- Pins or Clips for holding fabric together whilst you sew them together
- Sewing Machine
- Quarter Inch Foot or Walking Foot
- Hand sewing needle
- Sparkly Charm or button
Instructions
Here I have chosen 6 fat quarters that complement one another, in Christmas fabric. But you can equally use up all those scraps of Christmas fabric you have in your stash, as you only need small pieces to make this.
Cut 12 strips of fabric measuring 1.5 inches by 10 inches. (Here I have cut 2 strips of each fabric).
Lay your strips out before sewing and put them in the order you would like to see them together.
Sew your strips with right sides together, down the long sides, using a quarter of an inch seam.
As you sew your strips, press the seams open, to avoid bulk with these being such small rings.
Baste your wadding to the back of the panel, and free motion quilt it to your own choice of pattern, or if you have a walking foot, sew some straight or diagonal lines to hold it together in a contrasting thread. This will hold the wadding to the front fabric when you cut the panel into smaller strips. (Please note you do not add the backing fabric yet, this needs to be added separately).
Place your front and backing fabric wrong sides together, and lay the panel out ready for cutting. Cut your sandwiched panel into 4 even strips, which should be around 2.5 inches wide by 13 inches long. (Or as I did, cut your strips out and then cut your backing fabric strips out to match their size).
Now that your strips are cut out, cut 8 pieces of ric-rac the same size as the length of your fabric strips.
Lay your front fabric with the right side facing upwards and place your ric-rac down each side a little away from the edge. You will be sewing this a quarter of an inch in, and still want half of it to peep out on the right side.
Lay your backing fabric right sides together and pin or clip ready to sew.
This next image shows one side has been sewn leaving a small amount of the ric-rac peeking through to the right side.
Sew the other side the same.
Cut each of your pieces in half. As you will be machine sewing one of the ends of each piece, If you have laid your fabric strips in a pattern when creating your panel as I did, you might want to sew the same side of each piece with the machine, depending on which fabric you would like to appear on top of your napkin ring. Leaving one end of each piece open for turning each of the tubes to the right side.
Turn each tube to the right side, and make sure you tease the corners out.
Fold the open edges in and hand sew the opening closed.
The second image shows the completed strip.
You will then bring your top edge over the top of the hand sewn edge and place a couple of tacking stitches in to hold it together in a ring as in the third image.
The last thing to do, is dress your napkin ring with something to finish it off. This can be anything you desire, a sparkly button, a charm or fabric flower, let your imagination run wild!
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