Potion Bottle Mug Rug Tutorial

Look what I whipped up with my Sizzix bottle die, just in time for Halloween!

Double, double toil and trouble; 

Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 

Eye of newt, and toe of frog, 

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, 

Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, 

Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,— 

For a charm of powerful trouble, 

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

The rest of the ingredients are nastier than I remembered from elementary school, but if you're in the mood to read the whole thing, you can find it here.

To make your own mug rug, you'll need scraps off three different colors. I used purple for the bottle, brown for the label, and grey for the background and backing.

From purple, cut one 2" x 4" piece and one 4 x 4" piece. From brown, cut one 2 1/2 x 4" piece. The sizes are approximate, so if your scraps of fabric won't give you pieces quite that large, you can cheat a bit. Just make sure that you're making a large enough piece to cover the blades of the die.

Assemble and press to make a rectangle as shown.

The plastic back of the die is clear, allowing you to see exactly what your cut piece will look like. I layered one plastic cutting mat on the bottom, then a piece of the background fabric, then  the rectangle for my pieced bottle with the right side facing up. That way I could see exactly how the label would fall on the finished bottle. Then I put on the second plastic cutting mat, flipped it, and ran it through my Sizzix Big Shot. 

Cut the background bottle in half lengthwise. The bottom edge is 3" wide, so you can line up the corner with the 1 1/2" line on your ruler to get both sides even. This is how I made my own mug rug and it gave me very little excess fabric along the sides. If I was doing it again, I might cut two bottles and trim them 2" or so from the corner to give me more fabric. 

Sew a half bottle to each side of the main bottle. The bottom edge of one bottle lines up with the top of the other. Just match up the corners and go slowly, lining up the edges as you go. The gentle curve is easy to piece. Press, then border the center section with 1 1/2" wide strips of the background fabric.  

I wrote the letters freehand and embroidered them once the top for my mug rug was assembled, so that I could see exactly how the finished label would look. Don't want to embroider? You can always use a Pigma pen. 

I

Layer your top, batting, and backing fabric and quilt.  I used black thread and a circle fill to suggest the contents of the bottle and threads at the top (my witch must like screw-top potion bottles) and neutral thread to stipple the background.

Not in the mood to make a potion bottle?  This technique would make a neat wine bottle or bottle of perfume.

Be sure to check out  my other free Halloween Tutorials -- Halloween Parlor Quilt , Haunted House Potholder, Potion Bottle Mug Rug, Pumpkin Carving Wall Quilt