Thoughts from Sally: During last week’s Downton Abbey segment I was taken by Lady Mary Crawley’s comment to Sir Richard before dinner, “You see that having a cocktail before dinner has not reached the countryside yet.” It made me wonder when the cocktail was invented. Do you know?

Here’s Mathew with Lavinia, not Mary

I’ll bet if cocktails HAD made it to the countryside at Downton they would have been served with cloth napkins.

I was rumaging around in my linen drawer the other day and found my cocktail napkins. Real, made-out-of-cloth-ones. These have been saved from obscurity by virtue of having been passed down to me, from my mother and my aunt. My mother taught me what these were when we were downsizing my aunt’s house. I might have been confused by their size, as to their purpose.  They are actually a little bit bigger than a coaster. So I asked my mother, “What are these for?” Thus my education.

One of my favorites is this little natural linen with fringed edges. They are about 5″ x 7″, including the fringe. It’s fun to get them out for small parties, because these days most people are used to paper napkins.

I think it is fun and festive to serve cocktails on a footed tray. Here are my favorite cocktail napkins on my favorite footed silver tray.

Love this Rococo style silver foot:

Another Fun set of cocktail napkins are from the 1950′s, the era when cocktail parties were so popular and chic. Look at the embroidery on these – each one with a different cocktail and its name!

They are made out of simple linen, like a handkerchief linen, and are each about 5″ x 8″ long. Notice the little hand rolled and stitched hem. So cute. Here they are on a tray, ready to serve our guests.

And last, but not least, another of my favorite color: yellow. These little napkins are big enough to put in your lap, if you are carrying an hors d’oeuvre plate, but folded they are only 6″ x 6″ including fringe. Aren’t they cute? I love them for their fringe and their engaging color!

Here they are with champagne flutes, ready to entertain with style.

Now, your task: take a look in YOUR linen drawer and see what you come up with! One of my readers was inspired by my last linen blog post to get out her linens and use them again! Way to go!

Until next time,