Weekend Project: The Mummy (the making of...)

Probably the saddest thing you'll ever see is a mosquito sucking on a mummy.
Forget it, little friend.

~ Jack Handy

So, my husband is not a big fan of dressing up in costumes. (Or, when you get right down to it, in anything...) But good friends invited us to a Halloween-themed Mystery Dinner Party at their house, and he agreed to go in costume. His assigned character was an Egyptian mummy, King Ahldrinktotat.


I offered to make a mummy costume for him, and knowing how he feels about costumes, decided to try to make one that was reasonably comfortable - not, for example, asking him to spend all evening with strips of fabric wrapped tightly around his body.


So, I figured I'd use an old bed sheet to "mummify" a t-shirt that he could just slip on and off. I rarely try to sew without a pattern, but decided to throw caution to the winds with this one! Maybe Anubis, the god of mummification, would grant me luck... ;)


I was lucky to have one good idea to start with. T-shirt material stretches. Bed sheet cotton doesn't. UNLESS you cut it on the bias... So, I cut up the old bed sheet into lots of 2-inch wide bias strips.

And then I lined them up...


And stitched them together to get a single, long stretchy strip of mummy wrapping.

Then I started at the bottom of the t-shirt and sewed the mummy wrapping around and around and around, working my way up to the underarms.

I repeated the process for each sleeve- starting at the sleeve bottom and working my way around to the shoulder seam.

During this process, the amazing advantage of working on a mummy costume became apparent - they are SUPPOSED to look messy! ;)

Next, I covered the neckline binding with more mummy wrapping.

I couldn't wrap around for the top part of the shirt, and so I made a dickey-like thing to slip over his head. Here is the front (not quite finished) - note the stylish detail of the inverted triangle front and center.

And here is the back.


Finally, here is the mummy, in full, comfortable regalia!

It was all a bit of trial and error, and I would be able to do a better job if I made a second one. But, overall I was pretty pleased. It was fun to work this out without a pattern or instructions. It wasn't too stressful, as mummies are supposed to look messy! And, the most important thing is that it was comfortable for my husband. :)