Piano Mug Rug Tutorial

I had a few friends ask me about how to make this Piano Mug Rug so I figured it would be a perfect way to try my hand at creating a tutorial. If you attempt it, please leave a comment below and tell me how it worked out for you! Thanks! :)

Materials Needed:

Tools

Rotary cutter and mat

Ruler

Sewing machine

Scissors

Coordinating thread: black, white and teal

Fabric

1/4 yard white

1/4 yard black

1/4 yard teal

Batting

1/4 yard batting

Procedure:

 

1. Cut the following pieces:

white fabric: (10) 6.5" x 1.5" (these will be for the white keys)

black fabric: (1) 6.5" x 10.5" (this will be for the backing) 

                     (7) .5" x 4" (these will be for the black keys)

batting: (1) 7" x 11" (I pieced together some leftover scraps from another project)

teal fabric: (1) 2.5" x 36" (not shown above)

2. Using white thread, sew two white strips together with the right sides facing each other using a 1/4" seam allowance. I used my quarter inch foot to help me keep my stitches straight.

3. Take another white strip and sew it onto the opposite side of the seam you just sewed. Continue to connect all of the white strips. When you finish you will have all ten strips connected like the picture above.

4. Press all of the seams to one side.

5. You will end up with 1" white piano keys.

6. Pin the black fabric to the white fabric as shown in the above picture. Each black key should be centered in a seam.

7. Sew around all 7 black keys with black thread using a zig zag stitch. On my machine I used stitch number 17. *Update*  On other projects, I used fusible web and that makes for a much cleaner piano key. Choice is yours!

8. Trim all of the loose threads from the stitching. If you use fusible web it's much cleaner and no clipping involved!

9. Make a quilt sandwich with the top piece (the one with the piano keys), the batting, and the black backing piece. I made the batting measurements a little big, so make sure that the top and back line up on each side.

10. Using safety pins (I prefer the curved kind but the regular will work just fine) pin the three layers of fabric together. Since it is such a small piece, I try to pin around areas that I will not be sewing. Generally, you want to place the pins around 5 inches apart.

 

11. Using black thread, stitch a straight top stitch down each seam. This will separate each white key.

12. Take your ruler and trim up any excess fabric from each side.

13.  Take your teal fabric and press it in half. Pin and sew binding using teal thread. For a great tutorial on how to make and attach binding, click here.

And Voila! A Piano Mug Rug! Enjoy!

If you make a mug rug using this tutorial, post your creation in this Flickr group!