Anyone who knows my family, knows that my creativity comes from my parents. My mom and dad are the epitome of "necessity is the mother of invention." Years ago for Christmas, my parents came up with this pattern for napkin holders to give as Christmas gifts. At the ripe old age of 3?, I finally got one of my own! My dad gave me a "napkin holder kit" this summer. He called it a kit because he brought me the parts in raw wood and I got to decide how to stain and clothe it. Here it is after I gave it a nice layer of dark Espresso stain by General Finishes, one of my favorites, and five coats of poly.
The sides of the napkin holder are fabric that attach on the dowels like a curtain rod top and bottom. I decided to go with a coffee bean sack logo to keep with the vintage feel I like decorating with and also to play on the espresso brown stain! I did a little looking online and found a logo I liked the looks of to replicate.
I like text in decorating, especially when there's a mix of fonts. Here's my version designed in Photo Shop Pro.
I started with a piece of drop cloth fabric cut a bit larger than the finished product would be. Drop cloth fabric is nicer to work with than actual burlap, cuts and sews nicer and frays less. It still has that "old" look of burlap.
Next, I printed my logo on Avery brand "stretchable" T-shirt transfer paper. Notice that the print is mirrored. My printer does this automatically when I select T-shirt transfer as the paper type. Some printers you need to mirror your image first.
Lay the logo face down on your drop cloth fabric. I used my clear ruler to center the image.
After the image was transferred, I used the center of the logo to determine where the right, left, top and bottom hems needed to be. the top and bottom hems are sewn as a pocket like you would in a curtain.
And here it is!
I love it. I got to thinking, a larger one would make an adorable magazine holder too. Dad???
