When you think about vamping up your home décor, it’s easy to get stuck on the big projects: rearranging a room, adding a piece of art, or finally (and thankfully) updating that awful yellow wall paint that looked so cool at the store. But sometimes embellishing the little things—like placemats, linens and napkins—makes the biggest impact of all, especially when the details are hand stitched.

Embroidery is an ancient art, but it’s also an easy way to make your table setting modern and unique. In this project, we’ll show you how to combine a few simple stitches—most of which you probably learned as a scout—with Earth-friendly, reusable, fabric napkins for a home accent that is both stylish and green. Make a set for a Mother’s day gift or create ones that complement your own dishes; guests will think you brought out the fine linens just for them!

Materials
To get started, gather some cloth napkins. Use ones from your linen closet, try finding used ones at local resale shops, or make your own with organic cotton muslin (all you have to do is press under the edges and then topstitch along the outer edge). You’ll also want to get an embroidery needle, hoop and thread. There are lots of styles and materials out there, but as a general rule, you should use like materials with like thread. For a project like this, where washability is key, organic cotton is a perfect choice.

1. Decide on your embroidery design; start with something simple. Then, working on a hard surface, use a soft pencil to trace your design on tissue paper. Flip the paper over, place it on your napkin, and trace over your original lines, transferring the design to the napkin.

2. Place your fabric in an embroidery hoop by placing the smaller ring under your fabric and sliding the larger ring over it, sandwiching the fabric to create a taut surface for stitching.

3. Stitching from the top, follow your design using the running stitch or the backstitch. For the running stitch (fig. A): Working from the top of the fabric, bring your needle up at A and down at B. This stitch works best if you keep your stitches equally sized and spaced. For the backstitch (fig. B): Working from the top of the fabric, bring your needle up at A, down at B, and back up at C.

4. When you’re done with the design or you’d like to switch colors, knot the thread on the back, close to the fabric. Keep the back of the napkin as neat as possible; long threads can snag and distort your design.

Benares Finan-Eshelman is a local textile artist who sells her quilts and teaches classes at Cloth Fiber Workshop. Barbara Zaretsky is a fiber artist and director of Cloth Fiber Workshop (www.clothfiberworkshop.com); she also operates BZDesign, a textile design and manufacturing company and can be reached at barbara@clothfiberworkshop.com.

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