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Mug Mats Embroidery Project

By Pat Williams on October 07, 2013

PROJECT DETAILS

SKILL LEVEL

Intermediate

TIME REQUIRED

02:00

Description

This mug mat is the perfect gift for your co-workers or friends that survive the day on coffee.

Project Preview Video

Materials

Fabric: this project can be made from scraps from your stash, but you will need to be able to cut from those scraps

4 strips 2" x 6" - each strip will be of a separate fabric

1 mat back fabric of 12" x 8.5"

1 white fabric 11" x 14" for embroidery

This fusible batting 12" x 8.5"

Regular sewing thread for piecing and quilting

1 yard of single fold bias binding

Ann The Gran Blood Is Coffee embroidery design

Embroidery thread in 8 colors of thread to match the embroidery chart or of your choosing

Coffee mug

11" x 14" fusible tear away backing

Frixion gel pen with ink that disappears with heat

Magic Sizing or Best Press

Designs used in this project

https://www.embroiderydesigns.com/productdetails/Ann-The-Gran/1/AFCA232D

Final Product: What You Will Create

Preface:

This mug mat is the perfect gift for your co-workers or friends that survive the day on coffee. Bigger than a mug rug, smaller than a placemat, this is a great size to put on your desk or end table to protect them from the coffee mug rings and maybe cookie crumbs.

You don't have to include a coffee mug with this gift, but if you do, pick out your coffee mug first and then coordinate the colors of the fabrics and threads to the mug.

Step 1:

Purchase your embroidery design and print out the color chart. Open the design in your embroidery software. It will probably look something like this image.

Step 2:

Change the colors in the design to coordinate with your fabrics and print out so you have a correct color chart.

Step 3:

Iron the fusible tear away backing to the back of your white fabric. Cool after ironing and mark a center line horizontally and vertically across the fabric with the Frixion pen.

Step 4:

Place your hoop in the machine and line up the center cross hairs on the fabric.

Step 5:

This is just a tip and is optional. For designs like this, that repeat the same colors multiple times, it is great to have a separate thread stand that sits behind your machine. You load all of your threads on it before you begin your design. It is much quicker to change the thread from this stand than to reload each spool individually.

Step 6:

Sew out your design following your revised color chart.

Step 7:

Wash all of your fabrics and then iron with Magic Sizing or Best Press to restore the sizing in the fabrics.

Step 8:

Cut 4 strips of various fabrics to 2" x 6".

Step 9:

On your regular sewing machine, sew the four strips together with a 1/4" seam.

Step 10:

Press all seams in one direction.

Step 11:

Trim the embroidered white fabric even with the edges of the 4 strip piece and sew to the 4 strip piece with a 1/4" seam.

Step 12:

Remove the tear away backing from the embroidered section. If it is difficult to remove, heat it again with the iron and then peel away.

Step 13:

Following the manufacturer’s instructions press the fusible batting to the wrong side of the back of your mat. Note: the back of the mat is 1" larger on all sides than the front of the mat you just assembled. Place the quilt sandwich together; back of mat side down and mat front center on the top of the batting.

Step 14:

Now is the time to quilt your mat. This is a great small project to learn free motion quilting with your regular embroidery machine. There are wonderful instructions all over the internet on how to do this. The videos at this link are particularly good. This picture shows stipple quilting applied all over this mat done in the free motion style. If you choose not to do this, you may quilt your mat with straight lines of stitching following the stitching lines of the 4 strips and maybe a few straight lines outlining the embroidered area.

Step 15:

Using a straight edge, trim all sides of the excess batting and back fabric from your mat.

Step 16:

You may choose to apply your seam binding edge with or without mitered corners. There are many videos on the internet on how to miter corners and how to apply quilt binding, if you don’t know how to this. Learning to miter corners is easier to understanding by watching some of the videos rather than through written instructions. One such video on is seen at this link.

Regardless of the method that you use, always open the quilt binding and sew to the front or back of the mat, and then bring it over to the other side and top stitch the other side. Never try to pin it to the mat and try to sew both sides at one time. It will not work properly. You may also apply straight binding to the two short sides and then across the top and bottom of the mug mat if you choose not to miter. The mug mat pictured here as mitered corners.

Step 17:

Your mug is finished!

Step 18:

Add a coordinating coffee mug for special gift. This can be made in manly, sophisticated, traditional or modern colors and fabrics to suit almost anyone on your gift list.

For the love of embroidery...
Pat Williams

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Meet the Author: Pat Williams

Award winning Digitizer, Embroidery Educator, Author and a Consultant to the Industry, Pat Williams has 30 years of experience in the embroidery industry. Pat has won multiple awards for her digitizing expertise including the 2007 Impressions Awards Grand Championship, Best of Show as well as the 1st and 2nd Place Awards. Pat’s love of digitizing has afforded her the opportunity to write numerous articles for Impressions magazine in the United States and Images Magazine in Europe. In 2001 Pat was named “Embroidery Educator of the Year.” For many years Pat taught digitizing seminars at the ISS Shows in Long Beach, CA and for Compucon software. She now resides in Tucson, AZ.

Mug Mats Embroidery Project

PROJECT DETAILS

Project Preview Video

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