I am way into sewing lately, but it breaks my heart to have tons of (expensive, space hogging) scraps laying around when I'm done. Last week I found a partial solution to this problem in the book Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing--a pattern for napkins.
Her directions were for full size napkins, but I decided to make mine more like cocktail-size because a) that was the amount of fabric I had, and b) smaller napkins are just more fun. I cut my fabric into four roughly equal pieces, just a little bigger than I wanted my finished napkins to be. Then I hemmed the edges (fold under a quarter inch, press, fold under another quarter inch, press again, sew).
Even with my sloppy sewing, they're at least as well made as a similar purchased set. And they're so bright and pretty--I could see myself slowly building up a little collection and using them all the time.
