What’s up everybody?! I’m going to experiment with some sewing and doing Shibori style dye for napkins in an attempt to minimize my day-to-day consumable waste.

Supplies

Material of choice, I used cotton
Iron and ironing board
Scissors
Sewing machine
Pins, thread, needles (you know, sewing stuff)
Your color choice of dye
Dye formative
Containers
Clamps
Gloves
Water
And any other stuff that your brand of dye may require based on your material

Step 1: Video of My Experiment

Check out my video of how I tackle this project.

Step 2: Setting Up

I bought a pack of four napkins from the store, which were very large. I cut each napkin into four equal parts after I washed and ironed them as flat as I deemed necessary.

Once my napkins were ready, I set up my sewing machine and got to work. As you will notice from my pictures and video, my sewing machine is quite old, so your set up may vary.

All I did was set up for a straight stitch and back stitched my initial and final points to minimize fraying.

Step 3: Beginning Fold for Design

Since I had 16 napkins total, I will do four of each style. I start the first three styles by folding the square in half and then folding that half in half again, lengthwise.

Step 4: Triangles

Starting with my napkin as mentioned in the previous step, all I did was fold the edges to form triangles like an accordion! If you have ever made a paper football in school, that is NOT the fold that I did here.

Once I had my triangle nice and tight, I secured the broad area with cut out pieces of cardboard. As seen on my video, I would’ve preferred using wood as well as clamps to get a better “squish” instead of cardboard and rubberbands.

Then I repeat the process for the other three in the set.

Step 5: Rectangles

From the same starting point, I fold the rectangles like an accordion once again, secure the broad edge, and repeat three more times.

Step 6: Squares

I’m at the same starting point but I make another lengthwise fold to get to my square design starting point.

Then (you guessed it) accordion fold, secure, repeat x3.

Step 7: My Random Design

For this last one, I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I went a little random with it. I started by folding my square into a triangle, Pic 1, and then using one half at a time, I fold it into an accordion that wound up in a zigzag shape. Picture 2 shows me flipping it over and starting the second accordion fold into its zigzag shape, Pic 3.

Watching the video it will hopefully make more sense.

After I had both halves folded, I set it up away from me and started rolling it as tight as I could. (Like a cigar, Pic 4) Then I secured the center section with rubber bands so that the roll was exposed for dyeing on both ends, Pic 5

Step 8: Dyeing

With all of my napkins secured, I can start the dyeing process.

Note: Depending on what brand of dye you get will affect on your prep/set up. You may not need a formative, as well.

Based on my dye brand and the material that I am using, I have two containers. Pic 2. The white container contains the indigo dye and the clear container contains the formative. (Basically, the formative will help prevent color bleeding and help the dye set for its initial wash)

After gloving up, I will take the exposed edges of the napkins and dip them in the dye. I then allow them to set for the required amount of time. Afterwards, I dip those same edges in the formative and let them sit for the required amount of time before running them under cool water. Once the color stops running, I threw them in a washer and allowed them to air dry overnight.

Step 9: Outcome

The next day, I gave them a quick ironing and was so happy with how they turned out. Especially the wacky one I rolled (which turned out to be my favorite, by the way).

I got this idea from abeautifulmess.com and if you haven’t already seen/heard of their work, you should check it out!

Again, this was all in a pursuit to have less consumables in our house, such as paper napkins and paper towels. I hope that this inspires you to try it as well. This whole process was actually very cheap and quite satisfying even with the amount of bleeding that occurred in this initial attempt. And by bleeding I mean in the napkin fibers themselves, not into my laundry or anything!

Thanks for looking and let me know in the comments if you try and how it went. If you are a seasoned pro, what other designs do you love?