Do you have some larger quilting cotton scraps that are your favorites? Would you love to see them every day? Make them into a gorgeous set of fabric napkins!

This pretty project takes the standard double-layer napkin and kicks it up a notch with an all-around ruffle. It’s a beginner-friendly design that allows you to practice your ruffling skills. We show the traditional baste-and-pull method as well as using a Ruffler attachment and a Gathering foot.

Our thanks to Janome America for helping sponsor this fabulous “Mini Make.” We love to sprinkle in some fast, fun ideas you can whip up in an afternoon in-between your more time-consuming projects. We used the Janome Memory Craft 1000 sewing and embroidery model, and although we didn’t use its embroidery functionality this time around, we still appreciated its beautiful stitch precision and the ease with which it sewed through the thick ruffled edge.

The Supplies list below gives you what’s needed for one 18” napkin, but you definitely need more than one, so multiply the yardages to fill up your table with gorgeous color and design. You can see in our photos that we opted for a mix-and-match pattern, using one fabric for the main panel of one napkin and then as the ruffle on the coordinating napkin and vice versa.

If you plan on diving into your scrap stash for this project, it would be a fun way to create what we call a “family set” of napkins – a different color napkin for each member of the family. This is especially great for kids and even makes wiping your mouth more fun!

A set of four or more napkins would also be a wonderful gift idea. Bundle them up into a gift basket with a few mouth-watering treats.

When searching for fabric, try a bold print you can fussy cut for the main panels and a colorful and/or more petite print for the ruffle. That said, just about anything looks lovely when gathered up along an edge. Our ruffle finishes at 1” all around the main 18” panels.

As you read through the steps, you’ll notice several different seam allowances are used. We love how easy it is to keep track of this with the Janome machines. Bold markings on the needle plate make a good guideline, and as we mentioned above, the needle penetration power of the Janome MC1000 (and really – ALL the Janome machines) means you can stitch evenly and smoothly through thick and thin.

Our thanks again to Janome America for their support. To find out more about the amazing Janome machines, visit their website, follow them on social media, and visit a local dealer for an in-person test stitch on a variety of models. There are always great offers in store whether you’re in the market for an entry-level machine to kick off your sewing journey or ready to upgrade to a sewing and embroidery model or serger. Janome is our top recommendation always.

Sewing Tools You Need

Sewing machine and standard presser foot
Ruffler attachment; optional, but great if making a lot of napkins
Gathering foot; optional, works well with quilting cotton but not best on thicker layers

Fabric and Other Supplies

NOTE: Supplies shown are for ONE 18” x 18” napkin with a 1” ruffle all the way around, but napkins rarely travel alone – so multiply as needed. As a comparison, for the cute two-napkin set we picture above, we started with ⅞ yard of each of our two fabrics. This allowed for a lovely fussy cut for each of the main panels, with enough left over to easily cut each napkin’s four 3” ruffle strips.

⅝ yard of 44”+ wide quilting weight cotton for the front and back panels
½ yard of 44”+ wide quilting weight cotton for the all-around ruffle; you could get away with just ⅓ yard, but that requires very precise cutting of the four 3” ruffle strips, which is exactly 12” (⅓ yard)
All purpose thread to match fabric
See-through ruler
Measuring tape
Fabric pen or pencil
Iron and ironing board
Scissors
Rotary cutter and mat
Seam gauge
Seam ripper
Straight pins
Hand sewing needle

Getting Started

From the fabric for the main panels, fussy cut two 19” squares.
Using a spool of thread as a template, mark a curve into the all the corners of each square.
Trim along these drawn curves to create rounded corners.
From the fabric for the ruffle, cut FOUR 3” x width-of-fabric (WOF) strips.
Then, sub-cut each strip to a length of 37”.

At Your Sewing Machine & Ironing Board

Join the ruffle strips

Thread the machine with thread to best match your ruffle fabric in the top and bobbin. Set up for a standard straight stitch.
Find the FOUR 3” x 37” ruffle strips. Pin the strips right sides together end-to-end to form one long strip. Using a ¼” seam allowance, stitch each of the three 3” seams.
Remove from the machine and pin the remaining raw ends right sides together to form a loop. Double check the loop to insure there are no twists.
Bring the loop back to your machine, and using a ¼” seam allowance, stitch this fourth 3” seam.
Press each seam open and flat.
Fold the entire loop in half, wrong sides together, being extra careful to align the raw edges. Press well. The loop is now 1½” wide.

Ruffling set-up

We used a traditional method for gathering the loop to fit the napkin: two rows of lengthened stitches. These ruffles are narrow, finishing at just 1”, so instead of placing both rows of gathering stitches within the seam allowance, we put our rows of gathering stitches on either side of the seam line, spaced ¼” apart. This method gives more control over the distribution of the gathers and helps avoid the little tucks that can occur when sewing gathers. As you’ll see below within the steps, when the napkin is complete, the visible row of gathering stitches is removed.
Lengthen the stitch to its maximin; on most machines this will be a length of 5.0mm. This is usually referred to as a machine basting stitch.
Pull out 4” to 5” of thread from the bobbin and the top spool.
Starting at one of the loop’s seams, sew a line of gathering stitches ⅜” from the raw edge all around the loop, ending at your starting point.
NOTE: Do not lock your stitch at the start of the finish.
Cut the threads, leaving 4” to 5” of thread at the tail just as you did at the head.
Sew a second line of gathering stitches ⅝” from the raw edge, starting and stopping at the same seam as the first line of gathering stitches.
The loop is now ready to gather.

Pin the loop to one main panel and gather

Using pins as markers, divide the loop into EIGHT sections. The four seams of the loop are four of your marking points, then divide the area between these pins in half to create your eight even sections.
Find one of your two main panels. Mark this square with a pin in each corner and a pin in the halfway point of each side. This divides the square into EIGHT sections to match the eight dividing pins on the loop.
Match the pins on the loop to the pins on the panel, evenly distributing the fabric around the square, which means you’ll have some extra loop on each side. This is correct and is what you’ll be gathering up to create the pretty ruffles. The raw edges of the ruffle loop should be flush with the raw edge of the panel.

NOTE: You’ll be pulling on the bobbin thread to gather because bobbin thread moves more easily than top thread. So – we recommend pinning your ruffle in place with the bobbin side facing up.
To gather the loop of fabric, start at the center of one side of the panel.
Pull up on the set of bobbin threads and work the gathers along the threads, moving them one section at a time.
Go gently and patiently, from pin to pin around HALF of the panel. Stop when you are directly opposite from where you started. Distribute the fullness evenly and pin this half of the loop in place.
Go back to your original starting point and pull the second set of bobbin threads, working the gathers along the threads. You are going in the opposite direction around the opposite side of the panel one section at a time. Adjust the gathers evenly and pin this second half in place.

NOTE: We’re suggesting gathering halfway in one direction and then halfway in the opposite direction because of the long length of our loop. There’s less chance of your gathering stitches breaking. Our gathering pulled up very smoothly, but if you do accidentally pull too hard and break a stitch, draw up the broken thread a bit more, then thread it into a hand needle and sew running stitches back to the starting point. Adjust the second line of gathers to match and continue gathering and distributing.

Stitch, layer, and turn to finish

Change from the lengthened stitch back to a regular stitch length.
Using a ½” seam allowance, it’s now time to sew the ruffle to the panel. At the ½” seam allowance, this means your line of stitching will be centered between the two lines of gathering stitches. Sew completely around the square.
Find the remaining main panel and place it right side up and flat on your work surface.
Place the panel with its attached ruffle on top of the plain panel panel so they are right sides together and the ruffle is sandwiched between. Match the raw edges and rounded corners and pin the two panels together.
The line of stitching that attached the ruffle in place should be visible.
Starting in the center of one side, sew right on top of this first line of stitching all around the panel. When you are almost back to the starting point, stop and lock your seam, leaving a 3” – 4” opening for turning.
At your ironing board, press back the seam allowance along the opening so it is flush with the sewn seam.
Around the rest of the panel, trim back the seam allowance to about ¼”.
Turn the napkin right side out through the 3” – 4” opening, and press well.
Thread a hand needle and hand stitch the opening used for turning closed. We recommend a slip stitch also known as a ladder stitch.
There will be a visible line of gathering stitches along the ruffle. Determine which side of your napkin has the bobbin thread that was originally pulled to create the ruffles. This is the thread that is easiest to pull out. Remove the visible stitches, and your napkin is complete.

Try it with a Janome Ruffler Attachment

There are a number of alternate ways to create beautiful, even ruffles. One of the easiest methods uses a Ruffler attachment, a classic mechanical gadget that has been around for years. It has a number of adjustments to control the amount of gathers it creates. We did a full tutorial on the Janome Ruffler Attachment, which you can read here if you’d like to go this route.
We suggest sewing a few samples first to find the right stitch length and setting to accomplish even ruffles with 2X fullness. On our 1½” folded sample, we found a stitch length of 5.0mm gave us the best results.
Once the ruffle is created, you will need to join the ends of the ruffle in a way that hides the unfinished ends. Here’s our favorite method:
Fold one end of the ruffle under ¼” and press. Fold the opposite end up ¼” and press.
Overlap the ends so the folded edges interlock and pin in place.
Slip stitch along each fold to finish.

Try it with a Janome Gathering foot

Janome also has a Gathering foot, which is another speciality foot option to explore. It is best at creating soft gathers in lightweight fabrics. With thicker fabrics and/or layers, the Ruffler Attachment is a better choice or the traditional gathering-stitches method described above in our construction steps.
The Gathering foot shown in the photo below is the Janome 9mm version. It is also available from Janome in a 5-7mm width and a front-loading version.
We tested the foot with a folded, two-layer quilting cotton strip, and it gathered up beautifully to a 2X fullness with a 5mm stitch length and an increased tension setting of 7.0.