"A Monogrammed Mouse Mat for Mother's Day"

Today is Mother's Day and yesterday afternoon I whipped up a present for my wonderful Mum. It's really quick so if you're panicking and wondering what to get your Mum, you can make one of these in about two hours.

You will need: A mouse mat in need of a makeover; fabric, you can use large remnants but I used two squares of blue linen superfluously large enought to cover my Mum's mouse mat; your basic sewing kit; and an embroidery hoop, mine is 6 inches wide.

1) Sandwich the mouse mat between the squares of fabric, RS out, and mark with pins where you want the monogram to be. Then draw the letter on with a ballpoint pen.

2) Put only the top peice of fabric in the embroidery hoop, RS facing you. Put the darning plate on your sewing machine or drop the feed dogs. Using a medium width zigzag stitch, satin stitch over the lines of the letter.

3) Put the two squares of fabric RS together and stitch about 15mm (5/8 inch) from the edge around three of the sides. Snip the corners and turn inside out. Put the mouse mat inside and centre it. Turn the seam allowances on the open side in and pin. Hand sew the side closed. I used a mattress stitch as shown in the photo to the right because it is less visible than a slip stitch.

4) With the mouse mat in the centre of the 'bag' pin it snugly in place around the mouse mat. Using the zipper foot, stitch around, pushing somewhat against the foot with the mat, especially at the corners to make sure they are round like those on the mat.

5) When I had got to this point, I found I had made the sides too wide, so I folded them in and stitched them down, first with straight stitch and then with the honeycomb stitch (the only decorative stitch on my machine).

Now it's done! Congratulations and Happy Mother's Day!