Saving the earth with fabric scraps

Well, that may be an exaggeration but I do like to do my part, especially when it's easy and involves sewing. I got this idea a few years ago while subbing in Pre-K. One of the moms (who is also a friend) would send her kids with cloth napkins in their little lunch boxes, they weren't actually cloth napkins as much as they were old, cut-up, worn-out, dishtowels that most of us would have tossed in the trash. She really, really believes in recycling! I was so impressed with this that I gifted her 3 sets of cute handmade napkins for each of her children and decided I would steal her idea. I started selling sets at the farmer's market with my handmade lunch bags and also started using them in Julia's lunch, as well as our kitchen.

Whenever I have a 13-16" square scrap of fabric, I set it aside for a day when I just want to clear my head and sew something mindless for a few minutes and ta-da... new napkins! I just make a simple hemmed edge and mitered corners. I even allowed myself not to care that they don't match anything or even each other. In fact, I rather like the unmatchy-ness of it all! My favorite part of saving the earth with scraps is that I get to look at and use my favorite pieces of fabric every single day... win, win.