Napkin Folding 101

Napkin Folding 101

Shape up your holiday table with fun and elegant ways to fold paper or fabric napkins. Folding a napkin into a turkey is a skill not many people have. But the way you turn a napkin can make or break the look of a formal table.

Pumpkin Napkin: Create a loose fabric pumpkin out of an orange napkin. Make the shape by putting the middle of the napkin through a simple round napkin ring. Take the corners of the napkin and tuck it into the ring to make a circle. Turn over the napkin and puff it up a bit to create a round shape on the plate. Use a twig from outdoors to create the stem.

Cornucopia Napkin: Turn any square fabric – or oversized paper – napkin into a cornucopia to hold a bouquet or flatware. Press the napkin. Fold it diagonally to create a triangle. Bring the lower right corner up to the top, do the same with the lower left corner. From the right, roll it inward to make a cone. To finish it, roll the left side to hug the right side. You're left with a cone shaped napkin to drape across your plate. Loosely tie a silk braided rope around it to keep it all tidy.

Leaf Napkin: Use a solid color red, yellow or green fabric napkin. Create an accordion fold starting on one corner and fold until you reach the middle. Create an accordion fold starting on the opposite corner until that reaches the middle. Pinch it together in the middle and fold the bottom "leaf" up to the top "leaf." Slide in a simple napkin ring of the same color as the fabric. Now, you have a floppy leaf-like napkin. (The shape makes a pretty butterfly-shaped napkin, too, if you use fabric with a fluttery design.)

Turkey Napkin Fold: You'll need plain paper dinner napkin and a smaller luncheon napkin to fold into an elegant Thanksgiving turkey. We broke down these instructions from Chinet step by step:

The turkey's body:

• Open up a large dinner napkin.
• Fold two top corners down to the halfway point of the napkin.
• Fold both sides to meet in the middle to create a pointy triangle.
• Fold both sides in again to meet in the middle to create an even pointier triangle.
• Turn the napkin around so the point is pointed toward you.
• Fold the napkin in half, from the bottom, so the pointy tip is folded up.
• Fold the little tip up and then down to form a beak and the body of the turkey. Put aside.

The turkey's fan:

• Unfold the smaller napkin.
• Fold the napkin accordion style, carefully pressing the paper napkin each time you make a fold.
• Leave a few inches of the napkin unfolded and turn over the entire napkin.
• Fold the napkin in half.
• Tuck the unfolded part into the center of the accordion then fan out the napkin to create the shape.
• ·Put the fan onto the turkey's body and place it onto a plate.

Visit Foodlion.com to find more creative ways to decorate your Thanksgiving table.