Playable Quilted Mario Snuggie

This is a request from my daughter.  All of her friends have snuggies and she felt left out.  I couldn’t just let her have any old snuggie  and thus this monster was born.  Not only can coins and power-ups be put in the question boxes, there are also two built in pockets.  One for your favorite Mario characters and power-ups and the other sized for your Nintendo 3DS.  All the pipes are open on the top for character placement and three music boxes at the beginning of each level to play the corresponding music.  This quilt was done entirely by hand as my poor sewing machine finally met its end on my Monster Beanbag project.  The design was based on Super Mario 3 levels 1-1, the first Fortress and 3-5.

This quilt isn't quite ready yet, but I wanted to get it submitted in time for the game.life contest.  I hope to have it completely finish for the end of the quilting contest.

I used a mixture of fleece and flannel for the quilt but I think the flannel was the better choice.  Fleece was difficult to quilt and I would suggest using all flannel or cotton for your quilt.  All these measurements takes into account that the fabric is at least 40" across with the backing needing to be 46".

Backing       5 yards
Light Blue   3 yards
Black           2 yards
Royal Blue 2 yards
Light Gray  1 yard
Tan              1 yard
Green         1/4 yard
Pink            1/4 yard
White          1/4 yard
Dark Blue  1/4 yard
Red            1/4 yard
Yellow        1/4 yard

14 mesh plastic canvas
Primary colors pack of embroidery floss
Scissors
Graph paper
Fine tip sharpie markers
Seam Ripper (mistakes happen)
White Velcro Strips
Fabric Markers
Measuring tape
18" and a 6" quilting hoops
Sharp Yarn Needle (not sure of the technical name for these monster needles)
Regular needles
Quilting pins
Thimble (the soft leather ones work the best for me)
3-20 second push button sound modules
Thread
  Brown
  Black
  White
  Green
  Grey
  Red
  Light Blue
Yarn
  Light Blue
  Black
  Dark Blue

These are made out of 14 mesh plastic canvas to make them sturdier and fabric sewed on the back to hide the mess of thread.  Not all the characters will be exclusively from Mario 3 as my daughter loves Yoshi and prefers Daisy over Peach.  These are just a few of the patterns I have found or made.  I'll get the rest posted as I finish them.

The characters I have made (or in the process of making) are.

Mario
Raccoon Mario
Frog Suit Mario
Goomba
Flying Goomba
Leaf
Star
1-up
Red Mushroom
Fire Flower
Coins
Koopa Troopa
Flying Koopa Troopa
Fireball
Green/Red Fish
Yoshi
Bowser
Princess Daisy
Boomer

We will start out with the three main blocks and the sleeves.

Light blue
37" x 51"
Two 28" x 22" (sleeves)

Royal Blue and Black
17" x 51"

Backing
55" x 46"
Two 28" x 22" (sleeves)

There are 10 different block to be cut from the grey fabric.  These are by far some of the hardest on this quilt to make, but for now we are just doing large squares that will later be marked and cut down.


G1-   5" x 7"
G2-   6" x 15"
G3-   7" x 13"
G4-   9" x 51"
G5-   5" x 15"
G6-   3" x 7"
G7-   3" x 6"
G8-   4" x 4"
G9-   2" x 7"
G10- 5" x 8"

There are eight green pieces, once again these are just the rough blocks.

GR1-    6" x 10"
GR2-4  2" x 3"
GR5-    3" x 6"
GR6-    3" x 5"
GR7-    4" x 8"
GR8-    11" x 13"

B1&2- 3" x 51" (you may need to piece together 2 strips)
B3- 3" x 5"
B4- 2" x 5"
B5- 2" x 4"
B6- 5" x 15"
B7- 3" x 6"
B8- 3" x 4"

R1- 3" x 4"
R2- 3" x 3"
R3- 3" x 13"

P1- 5" x 7"
P2- 8" x 12"
P3- 2" x 51" (you may need to piece together 2 strips)

W1- 5" x 8"
W2- 6" x 9"

LB1 3" x 8"
LB2 3" x 5"

BL1&2-  2" x 4"
BL3&4-  2" x 6" 
BL5-       2" x 7"

DB1&2- 2" x 5"
DB3-      2" x 4"
DB4-      2" x 5"

Now that you have spent the better part of the day cutting out your pieces you are now ready to mark all of them.  Get out your fabric pens and a ruler.  You will need one for dark fabric and one for light.  Once that is done you will need to fold the edges under and use basting stitches to keep everything in place.

The pockets are formed with a reenforced with a layer of canvas  to make sure they last.

Putting the large pieces together is a quick and easy job...if you have a working sewing machine.  Start by putting the dark blue and light blue right sides together   There should be 37" of the light blue.

Attach the black to the light blue,  there should be 16" of each color.

Attach B1 to G4.

Attach B2 to P3.

Attach the pieces to the main backgrounds.  Be prepared to be doing this for quite a few days.  I got through three season's of Ugly Betty and four of Law & Order SVU doing this step.  The layout is 1 to 1".

Fold the Light Blue Sleeves and sew it on the edge.  Do the same with the Backing Piece Sleeves.  Turn the backing inside out and put it inside the blue sleeve leave an 1 1/2" hanging out of the top.  Fold the edge a quarter of an inch down and then fold it over the light blue to for an edging.

Lay your backing right side down on a very large table or in my case the floor and lay your quilt on top of it.  Use large basting stiches to sew the layers together.  Fold the edging over like you did with the sleeves and sew.  Use yarn to permantly attach the layers together.  Doing it in chains (picture ) makes the process a lot faster.  use the background color but only go though the background layer so as not to interfere with your pattern.

Using a large quilting hoop to keep the fabric taut makes this step much easier.  Your want your sleeve hole to be oval in shape.  Sew basting stiches an inch in from the hole to keep the fabric from seperating. 

Cutout the hole with an inch of fabric and snip so it folds easily. 

Fold the backing fabric between the two fabrics. 

Fold down the blue fabric on the sleeve and fold down the backing fabric 1".  Attach the backing fabric on the top, bottom, left, and right and then continue sewing until secure.

Flip the quilt over and fold the blue fabric in 1" and use the same process to sew them together.

Repeat with other sleeve.

This is probally the most tedious part of this quilt and one that I am not done with yet. Every single grey block must be outlined in black as well as the x in the middle.  The Brown blocks must be done in a wood pattern and outlined.  The waves and lava need to be shaped and outlined.  The bushes need to be outlined and defined.This step alone has taken me days and I am still only halfway through.  But I'll keep sewing on!!

Both of these are made using a embroidery hoop.  The music boxes are 2x2" and the circles are 1 1/2" in diameter with a 3/4" cutout.  You will need 3 Music boxes, 1 double stacked circle, 2 quadruple stacked circle, and 1 triple stacked circle.
I will post the pocket construction to hold the sound recorder as soon as I can.

This step is a bit misleading as I am still not done, but I hope to be soon.  Thank you for reading as I sure not many of you have read it all the way through to this step. :)  If you do try this out, make sure you get a soft leather thimble so as to not destroy your fingers.