Early Autumn Handwork.....Napkins

My goal is for kindergarten handwork to allow Toucie to achieve three things:
-use her own skills
-make things that are useful
-make things that are beautiful
So here is a project that allowed for all three: no-sew napkins with fringed edges.

This fabric reminded us of our lunchtime meal blessing:

The silver rain, the shining sun, the fields where scarlet poppies run,
And all the ripples of the wheat are in the bread that I do eat.
So, when I sit for every meal and say a blessing, I do feel 
That I am eating rain and sun and fields where scarlet poppies run.

We started with 1/2 yard of fabric. I made snips into the edge of the cloth at the appropriate spots so that Toucie could tear it into squares...we got 4 napkins out of our 1/2 yard piece.

Tearing  leaves nice, soft edges that run right along the grain of the fabric.

Start pulling away the loose threads and soon you'll see the fringe effect. Its important to tease the threads out one at a time...if you try to pull a bunch out at once, they don't come free easily. A kindergartener can cultivate patience by sticking with a job like this.

That's all there is to it...laundering the napkins will further soften the fringy edges.
Toucie is already looking through the Halloween fabric in our stash, planning for future napkins :)