Quilty Mug

I have for some time needed some sort of travel mug. What I have been doing is simply taking whatever regular mug I happen to be drinking out of into the car with me, often with disasterous results. Well, not really disasterous. Mostly just embarassing. Like having to walk around work all day with a coffee stain on my thigh.
I have been holding out for a really great travel mug though. Something really worthy of holding my precious tea and coffee. I've also had the idea for my own little quilty mug design floating around in the back of my tiny little brain so I was p-syched to find a customizable mug at Target the other day.
So behold: Half-Assed Tutorial #2, The Quilty Mug

You will need:

• A customizable travel mug (see step 1)
• enough canvas or muslin to wrap around said mug
• a whole mess of scraps
• thread and maybe stitch witchery
• hot or cold beverage of your choice (suggestions: coffee, tea, iced coffee, iced tea, etc.)
  

1. Get your grubby little hands on a mug like this:The bottom can be unscrewed and the decorative sleeve can be replaced with anything that your crafty heart desires. I bought mine at Target and it is made by Target but it is not on their website. I did however find this alternative mug available for purchase on the good old internet.

2. Remove (probably hideous) paper sleeve from inside of mug. If paper is glued end to end as mine was, cut straight up the side to make it lay flat. This is your template!
Trace paper on your canvas or muslin adding about 1/2 inch on one straight side. Cut that sucker out. This is your foundation.

3. Take your little scraps and just go string piecing nuts all over that foundation like so:
If you don't know how to string piece you can read about it in pretty much any quilting book ever written. I am sorry that I cannot teach you here but if I did I think that this would be more of a Three Quarters-Assed Tutorial and that's just a little too much ass for me right now.

4. Once your foundation is entirely covered with scraps flip it over like so,
and trim the excess fabric all the way around the foundation, leaving about 1/2 inch extra on one of the straight sides.

5. Fold this extra bit to the back so that it covers the edge of the foundation and press. You can either sew this down or use some stitch witchery to hold it in place.
This edge will overlap the other raw edge when you put it in your mug.

6. Insert your new quilty sleeve into your mug making sure your pretty folded edge is covering your ugly raw edge. You may have to do a little bit of trimming. I had to cut about a half inch off of the top of my sleeve because it was too fat to fit at the very top where the mug fits together more snuggly. You'll figure it out, you're smart.

7. Fill your mug with the beverage of your choice and chug-a-lug!
PS The robe was not donned for the sake of this lovely photo shoot. I just haven't gotten dressed yet. Still. As I write this. At 12:45.