Tutorial – Christmas mug rug for Santa

The kids are getting sooooo excited about Christmas (to be honest, so am I!) and I thought it would be great fun to make a little mug rug for Santa that we could use each year to place the mince pie and tipple on. It’s a fun little project that doesn’t take too long – and will hopefully become part of our tradition – and the kids can’t wait to put it out on Christmas eve!

Finished size: 9.5″ x 9.5″

Please note: all seam allowances are 1/4″ unless otherwise stated

Materials Needed

• 4 x 5″ charm squares for mug rug
• Fabric for applique (I used two charm squares)
• Fabric for gift tag (or one from a panel if you have it!)
• Embroidery thread
• 11″ x 11″ wadding 
• 10″ x 10″ backing fabric
• Bondaweb
• 2.5″ x Width of Fabric for Binding

Make the mug rug

• Place two charm squares right sides together and sew down one edge. Repeat with the remaining two squares. Open out both pairs and place right sides together, joining to make the mug rug top.  
• Cut out a gift tag shape and write a message (I used a Frixion pen or have a look at this post for some alternatives) which you can embroider over. Alternatively, you could write using a permanent pen.
• Cut bondaweb to the size of your gift tag and iron on to the wrong side of your gift tag. Peel off the backing paper, place into position on your mug rug and then iron to fix.  
• To make the snowflakes, cut two squares from bondaweb (1 x 5″ and 1 x 3″) and iron to the wrong side of the fabric. Peel the backing paper away. To cut the fabric in to a snowflake I used the instructions from here as a guide. I found that using a Clover clip to keep all the layers in place did help.

• Now I won’t fib to you – trying to cut through the multiple layers of fabric is quite tricky so it is handy to have little scissors to hand too for some finishing touches. If you’ve got a Sizziz Big Shot I would definitely use that instead! Or you could go for a different applique shape – maybe draw round a cookie cutter for a reindeer, holly leaves or gingerbread man?!
• Once you’re happy with your snowflake, place in position on your mug rug and iron in place. I cut my smaller snowflake in two and positioned on each side.
• Place the back fabric right side down, wadding and then mug rug top right side up and secure the layers together. Applique/free motion your gift-tag and snowflake in place: for the gift tag I started on the shortest edge, using a narrow zig-zag and went carefully around the entire shape before then going out to the edge of the mug rug in a wavy line.  
• Add  binding.   

• Load up with goodies for Santa! (he normally has a tipple of Whisky but as it was midday when we took the photo we went for milk instead!)

I hope that it all makes sense and if anything isn’t clear or you have any questions then please do just drop me a line. I’d love to know if any of you make anything from here!   See you soon, 

S x    

Today’s sky ● grey and dreary. Meh!