In This Article
Okay, but how absolutely adorable is the term mug rug? How could you NOT want to craft one immediately?!
Well, with our simple DIY, you’ll be the giddy owner of this adorable creation, and your mug will have a happy new little spot to chill out. Not a fan of the design we used for our mug rug? No worries! Any design you pick will be top-notch, and our directions can be easily followed and translated to the design you choose.
If you’re looking for some Punch Needle guidance, look no further. We’ve listed out our super-duper Punch Needle articles to lend you a crafting hand!
4 Steps: How to Thread a Punch Needle & Vital Q&As!
Punch Needle 101 Why You Should Start TODAY!
#1 Punch Needle Tips & Tricks for Everyone
Adorable & Easy Punch Needle Patterns 4 Free
We hope those articles are helpful for you and your Punch Needle adventures in the future. Now, time to quit chit-chatting and get to Punch Needling!
What is the Point of a Mug Rug?
*GASP* What is the point of a mug rug? Okay, that’s a valid question; let’s dive into it.
Some may say that a mug rug is too similar to a coaster, and it’s not a necessity. And sure, maybe it’s not a super necessity, but it is adorable, functional, and aesthetically pleasing, so why the heckin’ not? This is a very hygge item in that it embodies coziness and having something around you for the very purpose of coziness.
Mug rugs can also make the perfect Punch Needle crafted gift for a loved one, collage, friend, or even a fun Christmas swap present!
How Do You Make a Simple Mug Rug?
Creating a Punch Needle mug rug is a very simple DIY that’s perfect for beginners or even seasoned Punchers who are looking for an easy-going project. If you’ve done our Punch Needle Car Cupholder DIY, you’re one step ahead!
Supplies for Mug Rug DIY
Let’s cover our crafty bases and get out all the supplies we’ll need. If you’ve already started your Punch Needle journey, you most likely will have just about everything on our supplies list! If not, these simple items can be found at your local craft store or on Amazon.
- Punch Needle (We’re using a smaller-sized needle for our mug rug, but a regular-sized Punch Needle will also work!)
- Wire Threader
- Embroidery Hoop
- Monk’s Cloth
- Felt
- Yarn (Colors of choice)
- Crafting Scissors
- Hot Glue Gun/Hot Glue
- Fabric Pen/Sharpie (Not Pictured)
- Painter’s Tape (Optional)
Step One: Choose Your Design & Prepare Embroidery Hoop W/ Monk’s Cloth
Before we get to punching that needle, we’ll need to make sure that our hoop is properly prepared and then draw/trace our design. It’s important that the design you choose is drawn onto your Monk’s Cloth AFTER it’s on your hoop. This is to ensure that the design isn’t warped if it is drawn beforehand and then put on the hoop because there is a lot of tightening involved.
For our mug rug design, we’ve chosen some fun items from the classic video game Mario Kart! Picking out a Punch Needle pattern that’s simple is key; sometimes, too many details can get muddied up in the yarn. If you’d like to do a more intricate design, try your hand at Embroidery Punch Needle!
Here are some other simple design ideas that you can either choose from or use as inspiration:
- Pool Balls
- Fruits
- Emojis
- Sports-related Balls
- Traffic Signs
- X-Box/PlayStation Buttons
- Round Foods (Pizza, Pie, Ect.)
The possibilities can go on and on, as long as your design isn’t too cluttered with small details, you’ll be golden!
After you have your design picked out, you can use your crafting scissors to cut out a piece of Monk’s Cloth for your Embroidery Hoop. It’s good to have a few inches of extra fabric around the sides. Once your fabric is cut, you can start preparing your hoop.
Make sure that your Monk’s Cloth is taut and pull and adjust as needed before you completely fasten the clasp at the top of your Embroidery Hoop. Making sure that your Monk’s Cloth is taut is vital for a smooth sailing Punch Needle experience. If it’s loose, this will prevent your loops from staying in.
Your hoop is all ready to go, now it’s time to flip it over and draw your mug rug design on the back of your Monk’s Cloth. This is done so your loop/fuzzy side is the presenting side of your finished mug rug.
Get your fabric/sharpie out and ready and start drawing/tracing your cutesy mug rug pattern onto the backside of your Monk’s Cloth! What’s awesome is that if you make a mistake, it’s totally okay, because it’s going to get covered up with yarn anywho.
Bonus Tip: Monk’s Cloth frays easily while you’re working, to prevent this you can use Painter’s Tape to tape the edges. We’re not going to use it for this mug rug DIY because it’s a short project, but for longer projects we definitely use this tip!
Step Two: Thread Punch Needle & Punch Smallest Detail to Largest Details
Get all your yarn gathered and your Punch Needle threaded, it’s finally time to start punching!
We suggest punching from your smallest detail and work your way up to the larger details. If you did it the opposite way, it would be quite challenging to squeeze those smaller details in amongst the fuzzy and largely taken details.
For our specific design we’ve chosen, we’ll be starting with the tiny speck of white in the wee red mushroom’s eyes.
Look how fast that was! Something you can do if you’d like is snip the yarn tails as you go to clean up your Punch Needle canvas. It can be convenient to keep the yarn tails in case you want to pull a stitch out and redo it. But, if you’re confident with the stitch you’ve made, you can get your scissors and snip, snip, snip.
Onto the next detail of our Mario Kart themed mug rug, let’s punch in the rest of it’s cute eyes. What’s also nice about this mug rug DIY is that it’s not incredibly time consuming, you get to see your results right away, and anyone can do it!
As you’re punching along, feel free to flip your mug rug project over and use the tip of your Punch Needle to readjust some loops that may have gotten tangled up with other yarn loops. We’ve also very gently pulled our white loop up just a smidge so it wasn’t so swallowed up by the dark loops around it.
Now that our smaller details have been punched in, it’s time to move on up to the larger details of our cutesy mug rug. Let’s get this little mushroom’s face, right now they’re as pale as a ghost!
After you’ve completed a section, or even during, it’s fun and gratifying to turn your mug rug project around and see how your fuzzy progress is going. Look how cute it’s turning out!
Now we’re in the homestretch of completing the Punch Needle side of this mug rug DIY. Arguably one of the most important parts of this little mushroom item from Mario Kart, the red mushroom cap itself!
After you’ve finished all the punching for your mug rug project, cut off any last yarn tails, make your loop adjustments on the fuzzy side, and let’s get going on the next step.
Step Three: Cut Felt & Monk’s Cloth
Before starting this step, we suggest plugging in your Hot Glue Gun so it’s ready to go for the last step. For the next phase of the mug rug DIY you’ll need to pull out the felt fabric you’ve chosen for your backing and bring your crafting scissors along.
Cut out a piece of felt that’s a bit larger than your mug rug. It’s better to cut off extra fabric than to not have enough to work with. Once your felt is cut, you can take your mug rug project out of its Embroidery Hoop.
Next, cut around your mug rug and leave a few inches of Monk’s Cloth around it like in the photo below. This is super important for our next step.
Here’s where those few inches of Monk’s Cloth come in handy. Snip into the Monk’s Cloth until you reach the yarn of your mug rug and cut slits all the way around your project. You’ll be gluing these tabs down in a jiff!
Step Four: Hot Glue Felt & Complete!
Time to glue down those tabs, we’re almost there, you’ll be using your new and adorable mug rug in no time!
Using your hot glue gun, glue down each tab onto the flat stitch side of your mug rug project. You don’t want to pull on the Monk’s Cloth tabs too harshly, but you do want to make sure that they’re all the way on your flat stitch side and there aren’t any exposed Monk’s Cloth pieces when you’re finished.
Now that your Monk’s Cloth tabs are all glued down on the flat stich side of your mug rug, you can start gluing it onto the felt fabric. Hot glue the middle of your mud rug project on the flat stitch side and firmly pressing it. Then you can start gluing all the way around until your entire mug rug piece is firmly glued onto the felt fabric.
Allow your mug rug to dry and attach onto your felt for at least a few minutes. After it has dried, take your scissors and cut around your project and cut away the extra felt. If you’re a crafter that could use stuffing for future projects, scraps from Punch Needle projects is a great way to repurpose those still-good materials!
Bravo, bravo you crafting Punch Needler! You’ve just accomplished a wonderful project of creating your very own mug rug. Give yourself a nice little pat on the back, and try not to get overwhelmed by all the awesome ideas you must be having of what you want to do next! (We’ve got some Punch Needle ideas for you!)
We hope you’ve enjoyed your creative time with us in crafting a cute mug rug. Come around Repurpose Junkie again for fun DIY projects and learning how to repurpose perfectly good materials for other fascinating creations. Enjoy your mug rug!