Casting Spells

I love the idea of an old witch whose Book of Shadows is covered in dust from centuries of being passed down.  She’d have some old wooden piece of furniture somewhere in her house with that drawer that sticks when you open it, and inside would be all of her linens full of that musty smell of time.  When I first thought of these Witches’ Spell Napkins, I pictured them being housed in such a drawer…. musty, dingy, mismatched, but full of ancient wisdom.

If you follow this blog, you may already know that I’ve been hard at work preparing for a dinner party to honor witches and their craft.  I’ve created Rune Stone Wine Charms, Moon Phase Charger Plates, and Crystal Balls for the table.  These napkins are just one more project to complete the overall look of the dinner.

I loved the idea of each guest at my Witches’ Dinner Party having a napkin with their own spell on it.  Who knows… could be a conversation starter?  Could provide some assistance in an area of need?  Could even inspire some guests to try a little spell casting of their own!  I did not go as far as trying to choose spells that pertained specifically to my guests, but you certainly could if you found ones that you thought may apply.  I just chose 8 spells that I thought covered a broad range of topics from love, healing, beauty, happiness, etc.

Here’s an idea if you really wanted to wow your guests (and you were willing to part with your creations)…. Hand select spells that would benefit each guest, and then prepare a small favor bag filled with one of the herbs or candles or oils needed for the spell, and let them take the favor and the napkin home as a parting gift.

Another idea to take the spells to another level…. match the spell up with the corresponding moon phase charger plate.  In other words, each guest will have a place setting representing a different phase of the moon.  Since many spells are cast according to moon phase, partner them up accordingly!

OK… enough of the tips, and back to the design of the napkin!  I wanted them to feel like vintage linens.  I wanted them to show some signs of age and wear.  I wanted them to be somewhat delicate.  And I intentionally did not want them to feel too perfect… in other words, I preferred for them to be mismatched.  I had some shopping to do to hunt down the perfect napkins for this project!

I headed for one of my local antique shows, that passes thru town each month, in hopes of finding a few linens (knowing I may have to come back the following month to find them all).  After all, when do you ever find exactly what you’re looking for on the first try when it comes to antique shopping!!  I was open minded to anything in the white, cream or neutral family.  I did not mind at all if it had some stains.  I was also ok with finding handkerchiefs or tea towels because they are similar to those vintage napkins.

Early on, I came across a booth selling a set of 4 matching white vintage handkerchiefs.  One was stained so I got a great price on the set.  I was excited at my good fortune.  Then I happened upon another vendor who had a basket of napkins and handkerchiefs, but was selling them individually for a much higher price than I had originally hoped to pay (averaging around $8 a piece!).  I bought a $6 one, and figured I’d come back to her the following month as a last resort.  My goal was acquire at least 10 napkins… 8 for the table, and 2 extra just because you never know… I always like to have a few test subjects for my DIY projects just in case something goes wrong… and if all goes well it doesn’t hurt to have extras on hand in case some univited guests arrive!!  But, I was definitely not going to spend $80 on a set of random old napkins!  Feeling slightly disheartened at my chances of following thru with this project, I kept on hunting…. when I hit the motherload!  One vendor had two huge tables set up of old linens with a sale poster advertising $1 for anything on the table.  Whaaaattt?!?!?  As you can imagine, I ended up with more than 10…. and as I had hoped, I found plenty of mismatched options!  I’m still pinching myself that it was sooo easy to find what I was looking for.  I should mention that I’m not usually very lucky.
While some of my finds were stained, and most definitely looked vintage, I didn’t want to stop there.  My plan was to tea stain them to give a really aged quality.  When you’re on the hunt for napkins, just keep in mind that polyester doesn’t accept any stain very well, so stick as close as possible to cotton.  It really shouldn’t be too hard if you’re shopping in antique markets because typically vintage linens are cotton.

On a side note…. This post contains affiliate links.  If you buy something through one of those links, you won’t pay a penny more, but we’ll get a small commission, which helps keep the lights on.  Thanks!  Click HERE for more details.Let’s get down to the tutorial:

What you’ll need:

• Cloth Napkins – if vintage linens are not an option, these Lace Trimmed Cotton Napkins would work perfectly
• Coffee Grinds or Tea Bags
• Large Pot of Water
• Iron On Transfer Sheets
• Ink Jet Printer
• Iron

Tea Staining

Start by tea staining the napkins.  You can use coffee or tea for this step.  I happened to have coffee on hand so I went with that.  Typically tea gives a darker stain, but I just needed these napkins to look old, so any amount of stain would do the trick.  Please know… there are a million variations to how exactly to tea stain.  The following steps just happen to be what I did purely based on what seemed like natural common sense.

I know these days, everyone is drinking their coffee from those k-cups.  Does anyone use instant coffee anymore??  I don’t want you to waste those cups on these napkins, so I have a tip for you… instead of running out to buy coffee grinds you may never use again, or wasting brand new k-cups, save your used ones.  You can add the used grinds from the cup to your pot of water.  Just make sure you have enough to create a large pot of DARK coffee.

Fill a large pot with water (enough to cover all of your napkins).

Add the coffee grinds and heat until boiling. (Do not strain the grinds out)

Turn down to simmer, and add the napkins.

Do your best to keep the napkins submerged, but they will be determined to float to the top leaving some of the fabric exposed.  If I was going for a consistent color, I would have been concerned by this, but I wanted the tea stain to be uneven.  I thought some discoloration would help to “age” the napkins.

After about 30 minutes I turned the heat off on the stove and simply allowed the napkins to soak.  They soaked for 5 hours.  The longer you leave them, the darker the color.

I took the napkins out of the water and loosely placed them on a parchment lined tray. (They will be covered in coffee grinds – that’s OK)

I scooped spoonfuls of the coffee grinds from the bottom of the pot, and placed small piles sporadically onto the napkins.  Again, my intention was to add more discoloration.  As the napkins dry, I wanted some areas to continue to stain from the coffee grounds.  You can also rub the grinds into the fabric.

Allow the napkins to dry.  I let mine sit overnight.

Hand wash and rinse them to remove all of the coffee grounds.

I threw mine in the dryer on a delicate cycle, but you can air dry as well.

Iron on Transfer

For the images, design your own OR… the spell graphics from this project, plus many many more, are available in the Me and Annabel Lee Etsy Shop.

Adjust the overall size of the design based on your napkin.

Save your image as a mirror image (or flip horizontally)…

Print the mirror image onto your transfer paper.

Trim the image.

Iron the napkin.

Place the image transfer sheet, image side down, centered onto the napkin.

Iron without steam for at least 2 minutes.  Be sure to apply even heat along all of the edges because that is the most likely spot for the image to peel away from your napkin.  The longer you iron, the better the chances of the image adhering.  I probably do it for about four minutes to be safe.

Test to ensure the image has adhered to your napkin by peeling back a corner.  If the paper does not peel away leaving an image behind, continue to iron until it does.

At this point, technically your napkin is ready to be used.  These images are washable, so if you want to run them through a cycle, go ahead.

One point to mention…. you will be able to see the faint outer lines of the image transfer paper on the napkins.  This is frustrating to me, always a perfectionist, but unavoidable for a project like this.  All of the graphics that are available in the Me and Annabel Lee Etsy Shop have been revised to have a full border.  This allows you to trim VERY close around the border when cutting out the transfer.  Those outer lines are MUCH less noticeable!!

Now, go stash these in a musty old drawer until your Witches’ Table is set, and Enjoy!!

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