Semi Dresden - Mug Rug {Quick Tutorial}

I love Flickr. Really, really love it.

I love looking at all of the lovely pictures and gain lots of inspiration and ideas from a good Flickr surf session.

I’d come across a half Dresden plate on a doll quilt and instantly fell in love with it. I don’t know exactly why it captured my attention, but I’ve been wanting to make one for ages… I just needed the right project.

Well I signed up to another mug rug swap (I’m hooked on swapping these goodies) and decided it was semi-Dresden plate time. This mug rug ended up larger than usual, but I figure that we never actually use our mug rugs for their intended purpose, so it wouldn’t really be an issue.

Dresden Plate Block

Here’s a quick little summary of how I made it.

Firstly I traced my wedge shapes onto my 8 chosen fabrics, cut them, stitched the wider edge and then pressed them to make the wedge shapes (message me know if you’d like more detail instructions on this process).

I then sewed all of the wedges together to form a semi circle shape (fan).

Dresden Plate Block 2

Next I layered my batting and white background fabric (Kona Cotton in White) and pinned my wedge fan. I’m a lazy pinner, so I used 4 pins in total.

Dresden Plate Block 3 

I decided to use some invisible thread to attach the wedge fan. Regular sewing cotton in the bobbin and invisible thread through my needle. I decreased the tension on my machine as the bobbin thread was slightly thicker and I didn’t want it to be pulled up and appear in the front.

Stitch approximately 1/8” off the edge. Then stitch in the ditch between each wedge to hold them in place.

dresden plate block 8

This is how the back of the batting looked once it was attached.

Dresden Plate Block 5

Now for the centre circle. As I was winging it, I tried for find a circular shape that would suit – and at CD was perfect.

Dresden Plate Block 6

I traced the shape onto the back of the fabric and cut (though a pinked edge would look pretty good too, I imagine).

I pinned the half circle and used a zig zag stitch to attach it onto the wedge fan (with the invisible thread still in the machine).

Dresden Plate Block 7

I added the backing fabric (in my case it was a left over block from a previous project). Pin and shadow quilt around the wedge edges.

Trim and attach my single fold binding (TUTORIAL HERE). And it’s complete!

Dresden Plate Block Back

By my calculations, it should be arriving in my partners mailbox today.

17 comments

  1. Very cute! Thanks for the direction.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your Mug Rug so very cute!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lightbulb moment here! I like dresdens and fans, so to see your creative idea to use half a dresden as a fan, well, it's just brilliant! Obviously your vacation recharged your creative juices. Lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, this looks great. Thank you for the instructions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. how lovely and thankyou for your tutorial that is very kind of you.ox

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks so much for a really cute idea.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love this!! Thank you for the tutorial.

    ReplyDelete
  8. lol I used my dresden ruler to make your mug rug I sent you

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ok, I'm new to quilting.... :). With that said, could you please explain to me about the wedge shape sewing/?Thanks, Sherry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/2012/03/06/tutorial-sew-happy-quilt-qal-dresden-quilt-block/

      Delete
    2. http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/2012/03/06/tutorial-sew-happy-quilt-qal-dresden-quilt-block/

      Delete
  10. I love this! Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love this idea however I'm new to quilting and not sure about the wedge shape sewing and cant seem to find dresdan templates where I live.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am new... I need more help..

    Firstly I traced my wedge shapes onto my 8 chosen fabrics, cut them, stitched the wider edge and then pressed them to make the wedge shapes (message me know if you’d like more detail instructions on this process).

    ReplyDelete
  13. http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/tag/free-dresden-pdf-template/

    Here is a free template for a dresdan template. Can alter it if need be. But I am new as well, and just seeing this template helps everything make so much more sense!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I have this love of all things Dresden Plate. This mug rug is really nice. I will make a set of these and they will look lovely when we are all having coffee. Thanks so much for this lovely design.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you for this tutorial. It is very cute. I would like to know how you did the petals in more detail.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comment. I truly appreciate the time you've taken to leave me a message. I will attempt to answer comments via email.