Hand-stitched Napkins

I bought this fabric planning to make cloth napkins using my sewing machine, but when I saw the hand-stitched napkins from the Purl Bee, I changed my mind. I like projects that I take with me while I am commuting or travelling, which I was able to do with this project. I loved the effect embroidery thread added to the napkin, which would not have been the same using a sewing machine. In addition, I had some random strands of embroidery thread which I was able to use up in this project.

Apple Faces Felt Napkin Rings

When I was living in Montreal, I stumbled upon a cute, little yarn store. While I was inside browsing, I found these unique embroidery kits by Sublime Stitching. I had never seen patterns likes these before and on the packaging it read "This ain't your gramma's embroidery"! 

One package had a variety of fruit and funny faces. It was possible to mix and match the faces with the different fruit. For these napkin rings I used the apple fruit template along and all of the faces.

Here is how you can make them:

1. Trace 2 apple templates per ring on a red piece of felt from the embroidery package by Sublime Stitching 
2. Trace 1 small leaf per ring on a green piece of felt (I used a leaf template I found online, or you can draw one free hand)
3. Trace 1 stem per ring on a brown piece of felt (I used a stem template I found online, or you can draw one free hand)
4. Iron a face template cut out from the embroidery package by Sublime Stitching onto 1 of the 2 apples cut from the red felt
5. Embroider the face with black embroider floss
6. To make the apple more sturdy, cut out a piece of cardboard a bit smaller than the apple template and place it in the middle of the two felt apple pieces
7. Sew a blanket stitch with red embroider floss to join the two apple pieces with the cardboard in the middle and to secure the leaf and steam
8. To make the ring, cut out two pieces of cream coloured felt 1" by 6" and sew along both edges using the sewing machine
9. Overlap the ends about 1 inch and glue them together with a glue gun
10. Glue the apple on top of where you glued the ends together so it will be hidden