Mug Huggers. These are THE BEST GIFT! Whether you’re stuck for a gift or strapped for cash or want to create something beautiful and useful as a gift, you will love this quick and easy tutorial.
Before the mug huggers tutorial you must know the story behind it
When I become fixed on an idea I tend to.
- Talk about it a lot
- Research it a lot
- Read a lot of books and/or blogs
During my last fixation, I even took a budgeting course. That was new for me. Actually, no it wasn’t. Nevermind. I forgot I went to French Camp one semester and was immersed for five weeks straight in the middle of Quebec.
Right. So this last round of obsessed researching follows exactly the same patterns I usually get into. So this intro was basically for naught.
My point: on my latest quest/obsession/fixation/project I stumbled upon an interesting blog. I read a few posts and figured I’d keep an eye on it to see if anything useful popped up. And when I saw this one about frugal DIY gifts I thought, Yeah! Gifts in a jar for under $15!
But then I read the post (actually, I skimmed it) and thought…I can do better.
Here’s how you can make Christmas Morning Mug Huggers too
- Acquire mugs from anywhere but a store if you can help it
I recommend grandparents, friends of friends, or your local workplace. Don’t steal - Go through your stash yarn (or fabric, ribbon, etc.) and find some good colour combos to go with your new-to-you mugs
Find a great pattern and get crafty. My pattern is pretty straightforward: Thirty stitches for 30 rows, then add a border - Find some buttons
For my project I tried to scavenge from old purses and my meagre collection but resorted to purchasing a bag of about 100 buttons from a thrift store for $2.99 - Find little gift baggies
You could definitely sew them—hand stitch even. I found mine pre-made at a dollar store for $0.75 each - Collect little packets of hot chocolate and sample sized Bailey’s, or whatever type of hot drinks strike your fancy
I have a large tin of Starbucks hot chocolate and I divided it up into single portions, and I found sample-sized Bailey’s for $3.99 each. You could also pick up some single-sized instant coffees or teas - Put it all together and voila!
A lovely way to welcome Christmas morning, so long as the recipient has access to hot water
I suppose the good that came from the whole “Gifts in a jar” thing is it unlocked some sort of permissions inside my mind, which didn’t seem to think homemade gifts were appropriate. I know, right? But all I can ever think about for homemade is knitting and I didn’t want to knit all my gifts.
(OK we all know that’s not true.)
My compromise was to only knit part of the gift. And I think it worked out alright.
When I decided this was the direction to go, it was pretty exciting. I didn’t want to spend much (most of my friends are officially skipping Christmas, so really I was just trying to create a special token) and now I had direction.
Oh, and I’m completely aware that I’m spoiling the surprise.
…or am I?
Now the surprise will be who gets my Christmas Morning Mug Huggers!
Other quick and easy DIY gifts
One more thing. You may be interested in my free resource library. This is where I keep my files, downloads, ebooks, worksheets and whatever else I manage to create, including a few knitting patterns. I love sharing what I learn and want to keep adding to this library so it becomes a wealth of helpful goodness.
This is a free resource but I do require a password to access the library itself. You can get access by popping your email address into the form below.
