One of my sisters has a birthday coming up. I wanted to make her a mug rug because she likes to have a cup of coffee in the morning with her breakfast. A mug rug is a small padded, or quilted design that you can use to place your coffee or tea mug on instead of a coaster. It is made out of fabric and will not scar or mar your table.
I used some scrap fabric that looks like canvas, and a small piece of felt that I purchased for $.28 from Walmart. This was my trial run today and I already know several things that I want to do differently on the finished mug rug. There are a lot of websites that give away free embroidery designs to encourage people to visit their websites. I used to visit several websites every week just for the free designs. I downloaded this design so long ago, that I cannot find it on the web. I found some other people who have used it to sell but not the original designer.
I also merged this design with a different design just so that I could get the oval shapes along the edges. As you can see, the edges are not finished. One way to finish the edges is by using bias tape. Another way to finish the edges is by sewing a mini pillowcase around the finished mug rug.
I am still experimenting with different styles before I make a commitment.
The first step is to stitch the placement oval so that I will know exactly where to place the felt. The second step is to place the fabric that will be embroidered, on top of the felt. You can also use cotton batting or polyester batting instead of felt if you have that available. I will save my cotton batting for a really nice design that I have perfected.
Some of the designs utilize your regular patterns that are sewn underneath the other embroidered design. I felt that there was enough stitching in this small amount of space where I did not need additional stitching down.
I plan to make a personalized mug for my sister to use with her mug rug if I have time. If not, I will buy a mug after I decide on the final look. It is so cold right now, that I don鈥檛 feel like going into the garage to play in wet clay. My pottery will have to wait for a while. Enjoy your day.