Paul's Yeti Mug-Warmer

Just a quickie.

A friend had a bday party this weekend, and I spent a good week or two thinking of what to make him...before I actually came up with an idea the night before. Typical!

(To be fair, my sewing machine was also out of commission for two weeks.)

Paul is an infamous Bigfoot aficionado, as well as a tea drinker. I'd already gotten him a Tea Rex infuser last time I was at the DIA for the Samurai exhibit (which is gorgeous, BTW — go see it as soon as plausible!) I'd also seen neat little knit/crochet mug warmers, which I thought would make a nice combo with the tea infuser. I'm not a knitter/crocheter, but I knew I could sew one.

I also knew that there were a couple of Bigfoot machine embroidery designs in my collection, from my favorite purchased embroidery source Urban Threads. The Latte Yeti was the obvious choice. As for fabric, Paul is a huntin' kinda guy, so I dug up some flannel shirt scraps I had for the main body, with a strip of felt in between for insulation.


I decided to use a self-binding technique that's often used on receiving blankets, which I've done a couple of times before. (See my embroidered placemats post for more details.) Starting with a standard mug, I measured around the body, omitting the handles, and then the full height. The flat mug warmer is about 9" x 3", which then wraps around the mug, and then is held in place with a round elastic.

Typically, one of these might be quilted as well, but it turns out to be such a small project, that between the size, the embroidery, and the plaid, quilting struck me as a little overkill.

The buttons are faux wood made from...honestly, I don't know what. Resin maybe? They were a couple I had in the Big Box O'Buttons that you know we all have.

Here's what it looks like, snuggly* around a generic/standard coffee mug. It wasn't the Bigfootiest gift he got that day, but I'm pretty sure it was the only one made by hand.

*Just fully recognized the difference between "snugly" and "snuggly," and it made my day.