Walk Like an Egyptian... Mummy!

What better thing to make just after Halloween, than a costume?

We did actually know that Egyptian Day at school was coming up in November, but we went ahead and became a spider for Halloween anyway, knowing that we were going to make a mummy appear in November.

Mummy Costume

The brief was to come in Egyptian costume for a workshop and a feast, but we decided to ignore that and just be a mummy, because it was more fun.

To make the costume, we had to rip up some fabric into strips. I started with a shirt sleeve of M's that he used to strain some red wine, after the cork crumbled. The wine stain had gone a lovely dirty grey colour. The rest of the scraps are from a worn out sheet, and I got to use the worn out parts. The mummy had great fun helping me tear the strips. The long threads and torn edges were so effective in the final costume. 

Then we stained the scraps with tea. For reference, I used 3 tea bags in a mixing bowl of hot water - Earl Grey, if you must know - and then dunked the scraps in the tea with tongs. We had the bowl standing in the bathtub so we could pull them out soaking. The dunking was very quick, just in and out of the tea. I rinsed it a bit, but didn't want to rinse all the tea out of the fabric, so I mostly hung it to dry, all wrinked and messy. The rags looked so cool, hanging on the rack. Made me wonder where the mummy was - every time!

Then I started the labourious process of hand sewing the strips to the wrong side of a pair of white leggings and a t-shirt. I had at least two needles on the go, one on one side seam, and one on the other. I would pass the fabric over to the other side, secure with a few stitches in the top and then run the needle up the seam to wait for the next pass. I had to leave enough ease so the clothing would stretch properly to get it on and off. It was surprisingly difficult to do this. I had to sew the leggings while the child was wearing them to get it right. 

The good part was that I didn't have to sew neatly, nor hide the knots in my thread. The messier the better! While I was working, I left the scraps and the project stuffed in a bag, looking like a bunch of dirty rags and I am quite sure it helped with the final effect! I borrowed a friend's idea and joined bits of fabric by tying knots with exposed ends, in different places  over the costume (that's the friend's costume in the picture above). It looks really good, as do some random bits of rags hanging down here and there. She didn't like how much ease there was in the costume and the bits hanging in swathes, so I joined the rags together through the centre front, which covered more of the t-shirt. I sewed a long rag to the edge of the sleeve so we could wind this around her arms, another rag made a 'necklace' which covered the skin on her neck and instead of a head covering, I twisted a rag around her ponytail and tied it under her chin, which did a for a head bandage.

She wanted Egyptian eye makeup and we added purple under-eye smudges then a liberal dusting of talcum powder. 

Egyptian Costume

While I was working on the mummy, the teacher emailed me to thank me for responding to their request for parent helpers, and to ask if parents could come in costume too! Eeek! But life is more fun if you dress up so I decided to embrace the challenge and go for it. 

First, the mummy had to make a decision on whether I would be a mummy or a person. Thankfully she chose a person, because I thought it might be easier than a second mummy. But it would have been funny for Mummy to be a mummy!

I returned to the last scraps of the sheet to make a straight, white maxi dress. Just two rectangles, sewn at the side seams, with a centre back seam. The top edges are diagonal up to the centre because of the stitching line of the fitted sheet. I created straps for the shoulders. I made a pleat in the front and under each arm and a side slit at each side. The front hem curve is another sheet-made necessity, not a styling choice! For the hem, I zig zagged and turned once. The arm holes and neckline are finished by turning twice.

Then I wanted gold brocade for a belt, necklace and headband. I couldn't find brocade in my 5 minutes of looking in the upholstery section of John Lewis, so bought 1m of the gold-est fabric I could see. It is floral, which is not at all Egyptian, but the flowers were set wide apart with a nice vine pattern and the reverse side was very gold indeed. Plus it was only £14/m. 

For the belt, I used my waistband pattern from New Look 6057, my favourite curved waistband. I added length to exaggerate the sash style, and increased the front sections to overlap for velcro. I used flat felled seams for the side seams and then added strips of black ribbon for decoration. I eyeballed the pattern I wanted for the hanging down part (I'm sure that is the technical name for it) and sewed the ribbon to the front. After I had created a lining for the belt and the front, I attached the belt to the front piece at the top of the belt.

The fabric didn't sew very nicely, especially with the ribbon addition. I interfaced the front of the collar. The whole thing would have been better with interfacing, but I wasn't about to sink that amount of notions into a dressing up project.

I had enough for some half-cuffs, but you can only see the elastic in this photo. They are stiffened with toilet roll cardboard.

I even have gold snake sandals, and the Mummies had fun putting on their makeup in the school bathrooms!