Easy DIY ticking stripe napkins

Ticking stripe napkins are one of my favourite additions to my tablescapes, as they are adaptable to farmhouse, French, and beach house décor styles. They have a lovely simplicity but are far from boring with their two-different widths of stripes and play between two colours. In this post, I show you how to make a set of easy DIY ticking stripe napkins. These are not no-sew napkins, but they are still simple to make and will last a long time.

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The most versatile colours of ticking stripe fabric are black, grey, and beige, with an ivory or white background colour. Red ticking stripe is a festive colour for Christmas, pink is good for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, blues and greens are lovely for spring and summer and beachy style décor, and brown or copper are great for fall. I get all my ticking stripe fabric from Fabric.com

These napkins have a finished size of 19” by 19”, though you can easily make larger or smaller napkins. The instructions are for a set of 6 dinner napkins.

Supplies

• 2 yards cotton ticking stripe fabric (at least 45” wide)
• Thread to match the ticking stripe background colour

Tools and equipment

• Sewing machine
• Iron and ironing board
• Sharp fabric scissors
• Clear quilting ruler
• Ball-head pins
• Optional- Rotary cutter and large self-healing mat

Instructions

Cutting and pressing

• Cut along the ticking stripe lines to produce two 21”-wide strips, 63” long. Tip-make sure that you cut just outside the stripes on both sides or just inside the stripes on both sides, even if you need to adjust the width slightly up or down.
• Cut each strip into three 21” squares using the quilting ruler and rotary cutter on the cutting mat (alternatively mark 21” cutting lines using a pencil and quilting ruler and cut along the marked lines with scissors).
• Press a ½” hem along all four sides of each square, pinning each side as you go. Make sure that the side hems line up with the ticking stripes and that the stripes are symmetrical on the napkins.

Making the mitred corners

• Undo the pins at a corner and fold the fabric with right sides together. Take your quilting ruler and measure 1” in from the point, drawing a pencil line perpendicular to the folded edge. Pin in place
• Sew along the pencil line from the folded edge halfway to the raw edges. Trim fabric ¼” from the pencil line outside your seam.
• Repeat for all corners

Finishing

• Turn corners right side out and gently push the corners out with the scissor tips or a corner tool. Fold hems under and pin in place.
• With right side facing down, sew around the entire hem as close as possible to the folded-under edge.
• Press napkins and fold as desired

Care and washing

These are durable cotton napkins that can withstand machine washing and drying. To avoid shrinkage, wash in cold water and hang to dry.

Styling

Stripes tend to work best with solid-coloured dishes. Here are a few photos of how I’ve styled these easy DIY ticking stripe napkins. I tend to start with a  placemat or charger, add at least two plates, place the napkins, then add a decorative item such as a name tag, faux bird’s nest, or flower on top. Here I’ve used 3 plates and placed the napkin between the upper two plates. I decided to style the napkins by keeping them long and draped over the front of the plates and table.

You can see how I’ve used these napkins and a coordinating table runner in my post, A simple Easter tablescape for any decor style. I also have a tutorial on how to make ticking stripe pumpkins. They are absolutely adorable, and you can click here for that post.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about these easy DIY ticking stripe napkins. I’d love to see how yours turn out! If you want to save yourself the time, you can always purchase these napkins from my Etsy shop. I handmake each and every item with love.