the quest to put an end to paper napkins

Wednesday, January 30, 2008


One Oprah show she had all these guests showing viewers how they could live greener lives: less toxic cleaning products, reusable water bottles, reusable bags. One of the things she mentioned that struck a chord with me was napkins. I was using at least one or two paper napkins a day -- if we all stopped using them, it would help us reduce how much crap we put into the land fills. My city has a great 'green bin' program that accepts soiled paper napkins, but I wanted to try to reduce first.

But when it came time to plan for C's shower I wondered what the heck I was going to do when people needed to dab their faces after a few appeys and a slice of chocolate cake. I decided to make a shit load of cocktail napkins -- that's what I did.

I just fell in love with this fabric from my local store -- it's so pretty and vibrant and it was the perfect choice for the baby shower; and will be a great option for the million summer BBQs we have every year.

So now I have enough napkins to wipe the faces of an army, but I think I'll take a break from making them for a while. After sewing straight lines on 15 or so at Chrismtas and another 15 for the shower I think I'll focus on some more curvy projects.

6 comments:

  1. I wish I could watch Oprah, but i never get out of work in time. But thanks for filling us in on what was going on. I need to switch over to cloth napkins too.

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  2. my in-laws only use cloth napkins and i loved the way it made each meal seem a little more special so DH & I have been using cloth since we were married...however, I don't have any cute pretty ones like those...you have inspired me to make some pretty napkins this weekend!

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  3. Oh you just gave me a great idea. I bought -gasp!- yes bought 16 cloth napkins in a taupey grey color last month. I haven't used them yet, but I am having a ladies night at my house this Saturday and think it would be the perfect night to bring them out. I think I might even sew a little embellishment on them. Thanks

    Lisa

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  4. I did it! I had my girlfriends over and we used the cloth napkins. At first they felt so special that I took the "good" napkins out for them. Then I explained the whole environmental reasoning behind it and that began a huge discussion about the environment and doing our part. Thanks for the idea :)

    Take Care,
    Lisa

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  5. Great idea! I think I'll pass it on to my dad, who buys so many napkins, it's unbelievable.

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  6. Anonymous9:36 PM

    These are my personal favs! tee hee
    Lis

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