Fold a napkin shirt for Father's Day | How About Orange

June 17, 2010

Fold a napkin shirt for Father's Day

In honor of Father's Day, try a little napkin origami. Fold dinner napkins into shirts to create fun place settings. Note, however, that a recent study showed 7 out of 10 dads won't even notice. (Not really; I just made that up. But I think it might be true. Another study showed 100% of dads did notice money origami, though.)

Here's how to fold a napkin shirt. You'll need to press all your creases, so get out your iron. Or just use paper napkins and skip the ironing.

1. Place the napkin face down. Fold all four corners to the center. (My napkin wasn't quite square, so I had to overlap one of the flaps to achieve a square shape with nice corners.)

2. Fold the left edge to the center, then the right edge.

3. Turn the napkin over. Fold about one inch down from the top.

4. Turn the napkin over again. Fold each of the top corners diagonally inward to the center. This is the collar.

5. Lift each bottom flap and fold outward, making a crease that's roughly parallel to the collar fold above it. These are the sleeves.


6. Fold the entire bottom half of the napkin upward toward the collar and tuck it under the collar flaps.

41 comments:

Vivianapachecofineart said...

Awesome, I did this with paper, but so great for dinner on Sunday!!! Thanks for sharing!

neskita said...

Great idea - love it!

Grandma G said...

That's so cute/funny! I hope you're coming home to fold one like that for your Pa. ;)

Mum

Tammy said...

Fun! I love learning new ways to fold napkins (because I'm a dork like that) and I have those same napkins!

quiltinbysea said...

Great Idea, and it works, mind you, it would work a lot better if I used a napkin and not a 'torn to square' sheet of note paper. Thanks, will be using this one

Val said...

Who would have ever thought it?

Katy said...

OK well this is about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Just made one out of paper.

Heather@Cultivated Lives said...

omg, that is awesome! My husband usually mocks napkin arrangements because they tend to be so floral or feminine. But this is definitely NOT.

kimberj said...

Very cool and I'm absolutely going to make up a stack of these for our father's day BBQ!

LacyHolly said...

That's awesome! I can't believe the things people come up with!

simone leblanc said...

this is great!

nancy l. said...

Very, very cool!! Great tutorial too. The pictures make it goof proof. Thanks for sharing.

desiree said...

Awww that's so cute! Maybe I can get the kids to make!

Moosette said...

Love! Such a cute idea... I have actually been looking for cute Father's Day ideas!

Bonny said...

Thank you - I am going to make some for our Father's Day b-b-q! They are so adorable!

Bonny said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

How CUTE is this . Thanks for the idea

Our Little Beehive said...

Very cute! I just linked to you on our blog. Thanks for the great tutorial :)

lydia. said...

i love this blog so much! thank you so much.

xo.

gretchen said...

adorable! and i think we might even be able to accomplish this.

Eleni Psyllaki said...

xexe, really cartoonish!

Nathalie said...

This is too much fun! Esp. when it comes with such a humorous post :D

Unknown said...

Very fun!

Linked to this post this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Oh my lands! That is adorable!

Diane Schmidt said...

So cute I am going to make them out of paper for Father's day cards :)

Oh, My Darling said...

I'm pretty sure my dad has a shirt that is almost identical to the folded napkin, including that pattern.

Amanda said...

I would like to thank you so much for this post. It sounds like many people got enjoyment out of it on Father's Day, but after seeing it I used the pattern this weekend to fold tropical patterned napkins into tiny Hawaiian shirts for a memorial for a dear friend of mine who loved anything tropical. It just blew everyone away and some people even took some home of a souvenir. It added some beauty to an otherwise painful event, so I thank you for sharing it.

Jessica Jones said...

Amanda, I love that story. Thank you for telling us.

Anonymous said...

I made these with light blue and spring green napkins for our dinner on Sunday and everyone thought I was a creative genius! Thanks!

Melissa said...

Again, I thank you for adding to my necessary life skill repertoire. Between this and toilet paper origami I am set for life.

Fold said...

Invitation card design charming, very attractive and elagan, modern design, whether you have a collection of other marriage laws, I want to see

Sandra Mayer said...

Olá,adorei a idéia,,,obrigada


bjus

sandra mayer from Brazil

Elizabeth of Online Fabric Store said...

Clever, clever, clever and so cute!

I would never have thought of this.

Jenny said...

I once got money for my birthday folded like that. So fun!

Katja Nina said...

Funny! i'll try to remember this next year... can you remind, please!

Unknown said...

this is fantastic!!!

jennifer schrader said...

so cute! follow my blog!!

http://jmslilybug.blogspot.com/

Amy Lynn said...

Love these--thanks for sharing the tutorial!

Anonymous said...

I tried this! So hard!!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately it was a bit hard for me and i couldn't work it out but i've got a thin napkin... Any ideas??
:)

Jessica Jones said...

Practice makes perfect! Keep trying or look for a step-by-step video on YouTube. Maybe somebody made one.