Use The Simple Art of Napkin Folding to duplicate those beautiful napkin folds you've admired at elegant restaurants and memorable events. It's easy with Linda Hetzer's detailed step-by-step directions and illustrations.  Using cloth or paper napkins, create standing triangular-shaped folds (the "Tavern") for dinner parties.  A few accordion pleats transforms a piece of cloth into the "Poinsettia." Need festive ideas for a children's birthday party?  Make "Sailboats" or "Paper Airplanes." Graduate to more intricate designs that combine napkins with silverware, flowers, and wineglasses. Special features include A stain removal guide for heirloom linens and synthetic fabrics - Easy-to-follow instructions for making napkin rings - Graphs for embroidering initials on napkins - Instructions for stenciling your own napkins Filled with inspired ideas, The Simple Art of Napkin Folding turns any square of fabric into a work of art. Use The Simple Art of Napkin Folding to duplicate those beautiful napkin folds you've admired at elegant restaurants and memorable events. It's easy with Linda Hetzer's detailed step-by-step directions and illustrations.  Using cloth or paper napkins, create standing triangular-shaped folds (the "Tavern") for dinner parties.  A few accordion pleats transforms a piece of cloth into the "Poinsettia." Need festive ideas for a children's birthday party?  Make "Sailboats" or "Paper Airplanes." Graduate to more intricate designs that combine napkins with silverware, flowers, and wineglasses. Special features include A stain removal guide for heirloom linens and synthetic fabrics - Easy-to-follow instructions for making napkin rings - Graphs for embroidering initials on napkins - Instructions for stenciling your own napkins Filled with inspired ideas, The Simple Art of Napkin Folding turns any square of fabric into a work of art. Linda Hetzer is the author of Successful Entertaining, Fancy Folds, and the Illustrated Crafts series and a contributor to the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework. The Simple Art of Napkin Folding 94 Fancy Folds for Every Tabletop Occasion By Hetzer, Linda Morrow Cookbooks Copyright © 2004 Linda Hetzer All right reserved. ISBN: 0060934891 Introduction Any meal may be transformed into a celebration when dressed up with fancifully folded napkins. This delightful touch is one of the easiest and least expensive ways of creating an attractive table because almost any napkin-even paper-will do for most of the folds. What makes napkin folding so intriguing is the great variety of shapes that can be created for all sorts of different effects. Fans, crowns, and swans, for example, are elegant, pyramids are casual, artichokes are lovely as well as practical, and animal faces and airplanes are just plain fun. More than three centuries ago, napkin folding was developed into an art, but the practice has drifted in and out of favor following the vicissitudes of table-setting style. The illustration below, taken from a 1639 Italian book on meat carving and other entertaining arts, demonstrates the incredible intricacy with which stiffly starched napkins were once turned into such elaborate shapes as rigged sailing ships and turreted fortresses. Intricate folds like those are rarely, if ever, seen today, but even less ornate forms can cause a sensation at a dinner party. Try some or all of the folds illustrated on the following pages and see what a welcome reception they will get from your family and friends. You will soon discover how one fold leads to another, even to one of your own creation. Continues... Excerpted from The Simple Art of Napkin Folding by Hetzer, Linda Copyright © 2004 by Linda Hetzer. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.