How to Fold Cutlery Into a Napkin

Silverware stores nicely when it’s wrapped in a napkin. Some dining tables have shallow drawers to hold tableware bundles. Casual-dining restaurants fold cutlery into a paper napkin for serving convenience. Cloth napkins are typically used for in-home dining. The folding methods are a little different for the two materials. You'll notice soup spoons and teaspoons are not in the cutlery wraps. These spoons are typically placed on saucers or underliners and served with soup, coffee or tea.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Silverware
• Paper napkins
• Cloth napkins

How to Fold Cutlery Into a Napkin

1. Fold a cloth napkin in half, bringing two points together to form a triangle. Lay a fork over a knife about an inch and a half from the fold. Include a tablespoon between the knife and fork if you're serving pasta.

2. Contain the cutlery. Fold the ends of the cloth napkin over both ends of the silverware.

3. Roll it up. Bring the folded end of the napkin over the paired cutlery. Continue folding toward the points until the entire napkin is wrapped around the silverware.

4. Use paper napkins for another option. Make a stack of paper napkins. (Just keep them in the square they were packaged in.) Place a knife over a fork diagonally an inch and a half from one corner. Add a tablespoon between the knife and fork if needed for the meal.

5. Pinch and roll. Wrap the near corner over the middle of the silverware sticks and hold it as you began to roll. Stop rolling when the cutlery is over the bottom corner in the napkin center. Hold the roll in place with one hand.

6. Contain the ends. Fold the bottom corner of the napkin over the ends of the silverware. Hold this fold as you finish rolling to the opposite corner. The points will stick out unless you’re using very large paper napkins.

Tips & Warnings

• Special rings are sold for keeping cloth napkins in place around cutlery.
• A tightly pinched fold helps keep paper napkins from unrolling.