Create a mug rug using passport 3.0’s decorative stitches

Spring is in the air! The first fun holiday of the season is almost here – St. Patrick’s Day! In yesterday’s post, I went on a stitch adventure with PFAFF’s passport 3.0 and used many of the preset stitches to make a selvege stitch sampler.

I was inspired by the hearts of February to re-purpose them into shamrocks for March. Today I’m going to add a shamrock to my stitch sampler and make it into a mug rug.

Stitch sampler turned into lucky mug rug.

I used three hearts to make my shamrock. To make the heart template I cut out half a heart shape on a 2½” square of paper folded in half on the diagonal. If you don’t want to make your own template, I have included a link for you to use my template. I hand cut the shamrock stem and have included this template as well.

Lucky project template, click on the picture to download the PDF

My green fabric was also cut into 2½” squares. I folded a fabric square on the diagonal then tucked it into the folded heart and cut around the template. I repeated this step with the other two squares of green fabric to make a total of 3 hearts.

Folded fabric tucked into template.

I lined up the stem on one of the rows of decorative stitches, then placed the two side hearts on top. The final step was to place the third heart on top of the edges of the other hearts.

Shamrock applique pieces pinned in place

I used black as my thread color to boldly outline the shamrock. Stitch 27 is the machine blanket stitch on the PFAFF passport 3.0. Before stitching, I pressed the needle down button. As I worked my way around the shamrock there were points where it was easier to keep going in the opposite direction. Lucky for me, Stitch 28 is the reverse blanket stitch! I lifted the presser foot to pivot my fabric then pressed the needle down button to raise the needle, selected Stitch 28, then pressed the needle down button and continued stitching.

Using machine blanket stitch to attach applique to background

To finish the mug rug I cut backing fabric the same size – 8″ x 9″. Then I switched to the 0A presser foot, put the two fabrics right sides together and sewed around the edge leaving a turning gap.

I snipped the corners then pulled the fabric through the gap, pushed out the corners and pinned the gap closed. I used the red ⅛” guide mark on the 0A presser foot to top-stitch around the edge, closing the gap securely inside the stitching.

Using red topstitch guide on presser foot 0A

I made my other stitch sampler into a mug rug too. For this one I used matching green thread to secure the shamrock appliques. Making two mug rugs doubles my luck – and gives me the opportunity to gift one to a friend!

Two lucky mug rugs

PFAFF passport 3.0

The PFAFF passport 3.0 makes me feel lucky every time I sit down to sew – every project stitches up great! Now it’s time to make some tea or other hot beverage and celebrate all your blessings while using your lucky mug rug 🙂

This is part 2 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 1: PFAFF passport 3.0 delivers on stitch selection

Go to part 3: Create your own luck with a four leaf clover pincushion

Related posts

Making a quilted tabletopper for you and Santa

Using PFAFF’s passport 3.0 stitches to add charming details to a table topper

Using charm squares to sew a lucky table topper

15 comments

Pauline Perry February 23, 2017 - 3:33 pm
This is such a great idea - I love the decorative stitches on my machine and this is a great way to use them. Thanks for the inspiration.
Brenda West February 23, 2017 - 1:00 pm
I am fairly new to machine sewing - this would be a cool gift to make for a friend of mine who is an experienced sewer. Maybe I could do a good job with this. Love the directions - so easy for even me to understand. Thank you.
Christine Owen February 23, 2017 - 8:37 am
I love mug rugs..this one looks easy enough to make!
Donna Simpson February 22, 2017 - 8:52 pm
Thank you for sharing this now. Will give us time to get a few made before St. Patrick's Day. Really good and a good tutorial (which I need so badly when trying to make things!).
Delaine February 22, 2017 - 1:33 pm
What a sweet little mug rug! Thanks for the tutorial.
Summer February 21, 2017 - 2:49 pm
I have a Pfaff but never realized that I could use those red marks on the 0A presser foot as a guide for the edge of my fabric! I'm not too interested in making mug rugs, but reading through this tutorial impressed upon me that you never know what good tips you'll pick up no matter what the project is! Thank you for teaching me several useful things today!
Peggy February 21, 2017 - 1:58 pm
Cute project!
Brenda Skinner February 21, 2017 - 12:08 pm
Little projects to inspire. I like to have ideas like this for restless can't settle to anything days.
Laura February 21, 2017 - 11:59 am
What a great quick project to try out the decorative stitches. More fun than stitching them out on plain fabric and putting in a binder for reference. Leave this one by your sewing machine.
Kathleen B. February 21, 2017 - 10:57 am
What a wonderful use of decorative stitches. I love it!
Linda Schmidt February 21, 2017 - 9:36 am
Love all your time saving tips and techniques!
Sandy Allen February 21, 2017 - 8:08 am
Thank you for this! I have a new Pfaff machine, an Ambition Essential, and will be playing with the decorative stitches on it now!
lee February 21, 2017 - 6:56 am
Wonderful tutorial!! thanks!!
Sheila Fernkopf February 21, 2017 - 2:52 am
Love the shamrock. I would have never thought to slip the fabric inside the heart pattern to cut around the pattern. I always traced - love this idea! And love the pattern! Thank you!
Kim S. February 21, 2017 - 2:17 am
This is such a fun mug rug. I love all the various stitches you've used to decorate it.
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