I love every bit of this piece✨ I have four young kids, but we use my great grandmas blue willow for weeknight dinner just the same. It’s ordinary and magical.
I purchased cloth napkins at a little thrift store when I lived in Florida. It was a set of two. White linen with a beige trim and cobalt blue embroidered flower in one corner. Despite not being complete, I bought the set anyway. A few weeks later I found the mates across town at an antique shop. Meant to be! I love them. They’re used daily.
I have been on the fence about buying a table cloth & cloth napkins. I have 3 small children so the mess has always been in the back of my mind — I’m taking this post as a sign to take the plunge!
I think it’s so fun to romanticize little parts of our life that usually go unnoticed! I bought cloth napkins a while back and enjoy pulling them out more often to have special weeknight dinners.
My friend just gifted me 6 cloth napkins because I had just talked her ear off about all these things!! Cheers to cloth! Also, have you read Supper of the Lamb? by Robert Farrar Capon. I think you would be inspired and encouraged by it!
This warmed the traditionalist part of me so much 😊 ahhh… and to all the little cutlery and special saucers and the things we forgot the name of… and the table manners that used to make dining an actual Art…
Maybe because I am French, I have such fondness for these things - makes it feel special to sit at the table and personally it brings me to even more presence. Kinda self-conscious to take your phone out when your host has put tablecloth, napkins, and lights candles for you 🥰✨🕯️
It thrills me that something is in the air prompting the shift back towards these items that used to be everyday things. There's a recent video by Rajiv Surendra that provides and equally lovely ode to cloth napkins as this essay.
We no longer use paper towels or napkins (except for birthday parties mainly because they're expected), but we don't have nice cloth napkins, either. We basically use cheap blue towels you can get in bulk, but I'm on the hunt for a treasure like you found! Buying new just isn't an option right now, but I know my vintage cloth napkins are out there waiting for me to find them 🥰
I’ve used cloth napkins for years now and love them! Some guests find it odd and will get up to get a paper towel for their meal because they don’t realize what it’s for and have never used one before. It is something fun to talk about during those moments also.
I am now going to be on the hunt for more cloth napkins (as I only own a handful currently) before my first monthly dinner party at the beginning of February. Thank you for this simple, lovely inspiration.
Amen to all of this. I don't know if it's a family thing or a cultural French thing or both, but in our extended family (my parents, my inlaws, my sister and her family, and mine) each meal (except maybe breakfast) is taken at the table, no TV on, phones strictly forbidden, and always with cloth napkins. In fact paper napkins are reserved for parties where people may eat off a buffet but not necessarily sit down, and paper towels are strictly for mopping up stuff. It's always been this way so I never even questioned it, and paper napkins are in the same category as paper plates and plastic cups to me, something you use only very rarely and wouldn't restock on the regular. Cloth napkins last FOREVER too if you have a decent rotation, most of mine were handed down to me from my mother and they're hardly worn, so you're saving a bundle over the years.
I love every bit of this piece✨ I have four young kids, but we use my great grandmas blue willow for weeknight dinner just the same. It’s ordinary and magical.
I purchased cloth napkins at a little thrift store when I lived in Florida. It was a set of two. White linen with a beige trim and cobalt blue embroidered flower in one corner. Despite not being complete, I bought the set anyway. A few weeks later I found the mates across town at an antique shop. Meant to be! I love them. They’re used daily.
I have been on the fence about buying a table cloth & cloth napkins. I have 3 small children so the mess has always been in the back of my mind — I’m taking this post as a sign to take the plunge!
Thanks, friend!
I think it’s so fun to romanticize little parts of our life that usually go unnoticed! I bought cloth napkins a while back and enjoy pulling them out more often to have special weeknight dinners.
Loveliness is absolutely with fighting for!
My friend just gifted me 6 cloth napkins because I had just talked her ear off about all these things!! Cheers to cloth! Also, have you read Supper of the Lamb? by Robert Farrar Capon. I think you would be inspired and encouraged by it!
I haven’t heard of it! I will absolutely look into it — thank you for the rec!! ❤️
This warmed the traditionalist part of me so much 😊 ahhh… and to all the little cutlery and special saucers and the things we forgot the name of… and the table manners that used to make dining an actual Art…
Maybe because I am French, I have such fondness for these things - makes it feel special to sit at the table and personally it brings me to even more presence. Kinda self-conscious to take your phone out when your host has put tablecloth, napkins, and lights candles for you 🥰✨🕯️
It thrills me that something is in the air prompting the shift back towards these items that used to be everyday things. There's a recent video by Rajiv Surendra that provides and equally lovely ode to cloth napkins as this essay.
Should anyone wish to watch the joy of ironing and folding cloth napkins, you can find Rajiv's video here 👉🏻 https://youtu.be/XUw_crzJiFI?si=jUsZO6budM3jNK7p
We no longer use paper towels or napkins (except for birthday parties mainly because they're expected), but we don't have nice cloth napkins, either. We basically use cheap blue towels you can get in bulk, but I'm on the hunt for a treasure like you found! Buying new just isn't an option right now, but I know my vintage cloth napkins are out there waiting for me to find them 🥰
I’ve used cloth napkins for years now and love them! Some guests find it odd and will get up to get a paper towel for their meal because they don’t realize what it’s for and have never used one before. It is something fun to talk about during those moments also.
I am now going to be on the hunt for more cloth napkins (as I only own a handful currently) before my first monthly dinner party at the beginning of February. Thank you for this simple, lovely inspiration.
Makes note to self to go to antique store this week to purchase more cloth napkins.
Beautifully written!
This inspires me🥹 going to be on the hunt for pretty cloth napkins now😍
Amen to all of this. I don't know if it's a family thing or a cultural French thing or both, but in our extended family (my parents, my inlaws, my sister and her family, and mine) each meal (except maybe breakfast) is taken at the table, no TV on, phones strictly forbidden, and always with cloth napkins. In fact paper napkins are reserved for parties where people may eat off a buffet but not necessarily sit down, and paper towels are strictly for mopping up stuff. It's always been this way so I never even questioned it, and paper napkins are in the same category as paper plates and plastic cups to me, something you use only very rarely and wouldn't restock on the regular. Cloth napkins last FOREVER too if you have a decent rotation, most of mine were handed down to me from my mother and they're hardly worn, so you're saving a bundle over the years.