Now you all know I love Halloween time because I love to play dress up. But not only that,
I love, I really love my mummy.
Today’s special guests on Man Sewing come to us directly from my dear friend Amy over
at Indigo Junction. I saw this wonderful pattern set at Quilt Market and fell in love with
it. And she was so kind to not only create the samples but let us borrow them. Thank
you, Amy, I really appreciate all of your support over the years. So yes, today we’re
going to work on the 12 inch pillow from the I Love My Mummy pattern. And down in the link
below in our description we have the templates for the eyes and we also have the fun little
sign that says I Love my Mummy as well back here, ok. I guess that’s Amy’s mummy.
Fantastic.
So with today’s pattern we’re using the Crossroads Denim, that’s an Indigo Junction
fabric. And this would work great in the French vanilla or the whitewash colors. And for what
we’re going to do here we have a minimum of a half a yard. I would feel better with
¾ of a yard. What I did to start was I actually got my rectangle and my square. Four, I should
say, rectangles and my square for the pillow body itself before I did the ripping to create
the mummy. So you’re going to need a 12 ½ by 12 ½ inch square for the pillow front,
ok? You’re also going to need two of these. And these are 8 ¾ by 12 ¼. I want to make
sure I get that right. So there’s two of those. And those become the pillow back. From
your, I’m going to call it ¾ of a yard from this point on just to make life easy,
you’re going to need to do some ripping. We want that shredded and fun old, warn look
on our mummy. That’s what gives us so much character. So what I’m going to do over
here is I’m, I have a torn side. So from here we’re just going to come down and mark
every two inches. So from there there’s a two inch mark, a two inch mark, a two inch
mark. And you’re going to need three of these strips created. And then from that all
you need to do, I like to do this all at once, is I’m just going to take an inch long cut
into my Crossroads Denim there. And then you just tear. So I’m going to just take it,
both hands and give a rip. Even if you don’t give a rip you’ve got to give a rip sometimes,
right? And I tear, just like that. And then once you have all three of your strips torn
like this, we’re going to roughly sub cut these down into 15 inch strips for the, oh
you see all that fiber. I love that. Um! Fiber dust, it’s delicious. Especially if you’re
trying to mummify yourself, right? Now I’m just being goofy. Now if you want you can
easily just fold these into stacks. We are, like I said, cutting sub cuts at 15 inches.
It doesn’t have to be incredibly accurate. But we are going to need those 15 inches to
kind of be able to go across the diagonals of our mummy face. So that’s why you need
them a little longer bit than 12. And then once we get our strips all built like this
we’re going to start building the decorations of our mummy face. So let me finish these
and I’ll be right back.
So you can see here I’ve probably got about 12 15 inch long strips. But before we can
mummify our pillow face we have to create the face itself. So we’re going to need
to make some fun eyes. Those are done with just the regular polyester craft felt. So
I had some fusible web that I put on the back and then I cut out some circles. So those
are created in the template below for you. And then we’re going to need some fun buttons
as well. So I’ve already gotten my eyes ready. You will need to peel the paper off
of the back of your fusible so that the glue is there. Then the glue is going to go down.
And I like to come up kind of into that upper third let’s say. Position my eyes. And then
I’m going to put the white down here like this. And then what you can do, and I really
recommend it, is we come over here to our ironing surface like yay. And if you want
to make your eyes kind of goofy you can. You know, think about what buttons you’re going
to use. I like to use a pressing cloth because I’m going to get my iron really hot because
I have to fuse felt not just regular cotton. So now I’m taking my iron and I’m just
going to sit it on there. And I’m going to sit it on there and get that really nice
and hot. And then I’m also going to flip it over and press it from the back as well.
Kind of like when you’re putting those wonderful patches on your girl scout or boy scout uniform,
right? Same kind of an application. So we did that. And then just to make sure everything
is ok I’m going to come from the back. Don’t really need the pressing cloth back here.
We’re going to do that. And then I would go ahead and position my eyes like you see
here in this pillow, the wonderful little green eyes in there. And do be cautious, you
don’t want to get your whole buttonholes too out of line or you might be crooked and
crazy if turn them sideways, right? Remember cats have eyes that go like this. Humans have
eyes that go like this. So anyways we try to sew it on fairly straight like that. So
here they would be. Your cute little buttons like that. Stitch them down. I use black thread
because I wanted it to show up. And then we start building our strips right over the top.
Actually let me show you this way.
I have another sample that I’ve got all the strips put down that I’m going to bring
up here in second for us. But I like to do it while I’m looking at it. We’re just
going to pretend like those are stitched down right now because I’m really excited to
show you the layout. So with your mummy strips, and if you look close while you’re handling
your Crossroads Denim, you can tell there’s kind of a textured side and a smooth side.
I like to work on the textured side. I’m sorry if I forgot to point that out before
we put our eyes down. So as I’m laying all my strips I’m just making sure that my textured
side is also up. And I’m going to start putting in some fun diagonals. Now the eye
placement is really fun. So I wanted to start there. And this is why that 15 inch was so
important so that I could have longer diagonals. And then you just kind of build through. And
you’ll probably use almost all of your strips. And really this loose thread that you would
normally be stressing out over and wanting to scream because it’s driving you crazy.
Just take a deep breath and embrace that because that’s part of the pillow. That’s part
of the character that happens, right? So as I come through here, I don’t want to cover
up too much of the eyes. I build it and then what I really do is I go ahead and I take
straight pins and I put them in about an inch from the edge to hold everything. Let me show
you this finished sample. If you look real close you can see the pins again here. And
I probably, you can’t see if I did my sewing well, there is white thread that I’ve got
ahead and I’ve basted or stitched all the way around with just the most small seam allowance
so that I could hold all of my mummy strips in place. And then what I’m doing right
now is I’m pulling those pins back out because we’re going to trim those excess edges in
the mummy strips right back down to our 12 ½ inch size for our pillows. Ok? So we’re
going to need then a ruler and cutter. And I’m laying my cutter right along the edge
of the pillow front. Assuming it didn’t distort too much while I was working. I so
badly want to throw those on the floor but I so badly don’t want to clean them up later.
So I just had to take a moment you saw me there going into janitor mode vs. quilt maker
mode, mummy maker mode. Ok, so just trim all those off. And then while I’m finishing
this you’re going to start looking for those other two rectangle pieces. The ones that
were 8 ¾ by the 12 ½. And those are going to be the two pieces that are used for the
back, ok?
So let me see, I’ve got them down here. So this is what they look like when they start.
Of course they’re just regular good old pieces of Crossroads Denim. Remember we’re
dealing with the textured side and the smooth side. Our textured side is the finish. And
the reason that is important is we want to pre-finish the sleeve, this part right here
that goes onto the pillow. So I’m going to create these hems that roll underneath
and so I want to remember just what sides are my right sides of my Crossroads. So you
can see I actually have created one with a double fold that’s about a quarter inch
and another one with a double fold that’s about one inch. This is the part where you
really want to be paying attention to what you’re doing. So we’re going to go right
sides together. So now I’m looking at my mummy, right? Looking at the mummy. Then I
want to make sure when I’m done the smooth side is showing so that is my right side,
correct? Like that. Then I also want to make sure I have my overlap and that my smooth
side is showing when it’s all done. So that’s going to go down like that. Worst case scenario
if you got it wrong you could always introduce the seam ripper to the side you didn’t get
correct. If it makes life easier why don’t you throw a couple of pins kind of through
the corners just to keep everything. Because we’re going to come back to the machine
with a nice quarter inch seam allowance we’re going to finish this off. Ok? And that is
done just all the way around the pillow. But I’m going to mention that I want to start,
let me show you, I’m going to start up in this area where I’m just kind of catching
everything as I go along. I don’t want to start right on top of all the bulk. I want
to get a good beginning start up here.
So with that quarter inch seam allowance we’re just going to run around the edges real easy.
And I’m just going to pivot at the corners. I’m not even bothering to stop and starting.
Here I came over all that nice bulk. If you struggle a little bit just go nice and slow
there. Now as I approach the corner I’m just going to go ahead and pivot. I’m not
going to sew off the edge. Just going to come around there and we’re going to finish out
the entire pillow that way. Very easy. Ok I just swung around that last corner and I’m
coming into the finish so I’m just going to do a quick little backstitch to secure
all those threads. Ok so we’ve got those threads cut and we’re ready to turn our
pillow right sides out. Now as you do this be cautious because those mummy strips can
shift so you want to go nice and slow. And one of the things in Amy’s instructions
that she talks about is you can always take a hand needle and some white thread or cream
colored thread and go back and tack a few of those mummy strips right into place to
keep the character just as you designed on your mummy face. We’ve almost got it for
you. I’m dying to show. And I really had fun. I enjoyed creating my little 12 inch
sample because one of my rules of thumb at Man Sewing is I always try to do all of my
own sewing so that I really learn how to do this nice. Great back finished, right? And
here is my new mummy. So we’ll have matching mummies at home. Isn’t that wonderful?
So again I really want to spend a moment and say thank you very much to Amy at Indigo Junction
for fantastic patterns through many and many years both in garment and in quilting. We
really appreciate it. You probably see these great pumpkins bouncing around on the set
as well. That’s from her pumpkin trio. And I am dying to hear what all of you are going
to do with your mummies here this Halloween at Man Sewing.