My Favorite Napkin Folding Technique

My Favorite Napkin Folding Technique

When it’s time for company to come I usually don’t go to much fuss or bother with fancy tablescapes but sometimes it’s nice to still add a few special touches, perhaps some fresh flowers, the best dishes, and the cloth napkins. And if I’m getting out the cloth napkins, I find a quick little DIY touch is to fold the napkins to actually hold the silverware too!

How To Do The Triple Pocket Napkin Fold

There are lots of amazing ways that people fold napkins into things like swans and roses and what have you, but once I learned how to fold napkins with pockets I decided it was not only pretty but functional too. And because I love things that are both pretty and functional, it’s become my favorite napkin folding method!

This technique is called the Triple Pocket napkin fold and creates little pockets for your three pieces of cutlery – your knife, fork, and spoon.

I’ve had these basic brown napkins for many years, and they work quite well for this type of napkin folding because they have no right or wrong side and don’t have any large hems around the edges (just a very small overcast type of seam). My napkins shown here are 18″x19″ (and all these years I thought they were perfectly square until I measured them for this blog post!)

You will need to do 7 folds to make these napkins to hold your utensils. But they are easy folds! Here’s a helpful video showing how to do it (a quick ad may play first). I’ve also got the complete written napkin folding steps below with pictures.

Napkin Folding Steps To Create Pockets

Step 1 – Fold your napkin in half length-wise from left to right.

Step 2 – Fold the napkin in half again from the bottom to the top.

Step 3 – Fold the top right corner down to the bottom left corner.

Step 4 – Then take the top right corner of the next layer and fold it down, tucking it in behind the last fold, but still leaving about 1″ showing.

Step 5 – Repeat one more time, taking the top right corner of the third layer, and folding it down and tucking it in with about 1″ still showing.

Step 6 – Flip the napkin over, and fold in the left side about 2″.

Step 7 – Then fold the right side in to meet the left edge.

Then you can turn the napkin back over to the front side and your triple pocket napkin fold is complete!

This method is pretty basic napkin folding, but I always think it results in a very nice finished look. It’s a great way to make your own sophisticated touch for the dinner table!

You might also like to read:

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• Orange Juice Punch for a Morning Brunch
• Parmesan Bites Appetizers
• How to make a folded newspaper Bag

Triple Pocket Napkin Fold

Materials:

• Cloth napkins (18″ napkins with no right or wrong side work well)

Instructions:

• Fold your napkin in half length-wise from left to right.
• Fold the napkin in half again from the bottom to the top.
• Fold the top right corner down to the bottom left corner.
• Then take the top right corner of the next layer and fold it down, tucking it in behind the last fold, but still leaving about 1″ showing.
• Repeat one more time, taking the top right corner of the third layer, and folding it down and tucking it in with about 1″ still showing.
• Flip the napkin over, and fold in the left side about 2″.
• Then fold the right side in to meet the left edge.
• Turn the napkin back over to the front side and insert a knife, fork, and spoon, into each of the pockets.