Turning old towels into cloth napkins

I’m on a serious mission to save all the money we possibly can around our home.  One money saving technique that I am trying is cloth napkins.  We waste close to $10 a month on paper napkins.  That is completely ridiculous and we could do much better things with that $120 a year!  So I went searching for a solution, that wasn’t going to cost us any additional money. 

Solution:  I made cloth napkins out of kitchen towels that I didn’t like.  The towels I used were thin and they always irritated me as towels because they barely soak up any water, but cut in half and repurposed as cloth napkins, they are perfect!

I cut the towels in half.  No measuring here.  I wanted an easy project so I eyeballed everything.  I hemmed each cut piece and then labeled them with a “D” for dining room to make sure they wouldn’t make there way back to my kitchen towel cabinet.

 

 

 

 

 

My sewing abilities leave a  lot to be desired but they work and they didn’t cost a thing! 

DIY Dining Room Table

So with future plans of a big family and holiday dinners, we really wanted a dining room table that could accommodate more than 4 people.  (Un)Fortunately the options for 10 foot tables were WAY out of our price range.  With that in mind we decided to put this tutorial to the test and build our own.  Take a look and let us know what you think:

 

Final Cost: $505 (including the cost of some new tools- pocket hole guide, square, level, etc.)

Average Purchase Price of a similar table: $1,000

 

 

Staining and Clear coating the legs after they were cut-

The base of the table top-

Table top with the hard wood flooring glued and nailed into place-

 

The table leaves which take the main table from 6ft to 10ft-

 

After the first pour of clear coat-

 

A ham on the table

 

First coat of clear coat on the leaves-

 

 

The base of the table set up in our dining room-

Centering the table top on the base to secure

 

Close ups-

 

 

In action-

We absolutely love it!  At a 50% savings, I’d say it was a great investment.  The strength and character of this piece makes it so special to us!

Leftovers

After the holiday dinners are over I only have one request.  Can I have the carcass!

 

I acquired 4 turkey carcasses, combined it with all the vegetable “garbage” I’ve frozen throughout the year (onion skins, carrot peels, leaves off of the celery and potato skins) and made 13 quarts and 1 pint of broth, along with a big pot of homemade soup.

 

The treasure after 6 hours of boiling…

 

Skimmed Broth:

Don’t forget to ask for the leftover bones at your next holiday meal!  It’s a great source of FREE food!!