In Which I Learn that Hand-making Your Own Cloth Napkins is Not Worth It

I finally finished a project today that I started a couple weeks ago. I had plenty of the curtain fabric left over that I used to cover the chair seat a few weeks ago and decided to use it to make a set of cloth napkins. I used a cloth napkin I had to figure out how big to make them.

After cutting out the four squares, I used some a technique called mitered corners to make them look nice and finished. Check out the technique here. There was a good bit of folding, then ironing, and pinning involved.

The website I used for inspiration suggested some boring lines of stitching to add but I decided that little embroidered animals would be much cuter. I did some google imaging to get ideas and then drew animals simple enough to accommodate my beginner embroiderer skills.

Yes, I know the elephant is a little off-center. He was the first one I did. I'll do better next time, I promise. There was some experimentation with a T. rex but it didn't quite work out. Maybe next time I'll do a T. rex, a stegosaurus, a pterodactyl and... a brontosaurus maybe?

I enjoyed doing the animals but making the napkins themselves was totally not worth it. There was far too much ironing and pinning and cutting involved. Next time I'll buy plain napkins already made and add the embroidery.

I also made a flourless chocolate cake today. I'm telling you, there is not much better in the world than flourless chocolate cake and Breyer's lactose free vanilla ice cream. I've decided to give up chocolate for Lent so I wanted to gorge myself on as much chocolate as possible between now and Wednesday. Unfortunately, I just realized that I am working for 12 hours tomorrow and then having dinner out with my dad. So I'm apparently going to have to finish the chocolate cake between about 9 and 10pm tomorrow. Oh goodness. I know it's what Baby Jesus would want me to do though so I'll power through.

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone!