No Sew Knock-Off Pottery Barn Mummy Pillow

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Published by Sydney on October 9, 2014 | Updated April 20, 2021 | 39 Comments

Create the Pottery Barn’s mummy pillow for a fraction of the price and no sewing involved!

Have you ever been walking through a store and saw something across the room and said to yourself “I gotta have that!” You run over to it, flip over the price tag and think to yourself “Ouch, I guess I don’t HAVE to have that.” Well that happened to me a few weeks ago. I wasn’t at a store though I was on Instagram. One of the blogs I follow, I can’t

Photo Credit: PotteryBarn.com

remember which one now, had posted a picture of a blanket or something from Pottery Barn. In the background was the cutest Mummy Pillow, perfect for Halloween.

So of course I went to Pottery Barn’s website right away to find my newest pillow and got a little sticker shock… $29.95 for a 12″ pillow! What?! Even if I had decided I was going to buy the pillow it wouldn’t ship until October 28th. So I wouldn’t even get that cute guy until after Halloween.

Instead of just giving up I looked at the picture a little more, zoomed in on it, and realized I could make one! And for a heck of a lot less than 30 bucks! First I had to find my pillow. I looked online at Target, Walmart, World Market and every plain white pillow that I found was $10+. More than I wanted to spend on just the pillow. Then I thought, ‘Hey I can sew a pillow!’ But who are we kidding; I can’t sew.

Then my ah-ha moment came. Ikea. So I hopped on over to their website and found a 20″ pillow insert for $2.99 and a white cover for $4. That was more doable. So that weekend we loaded up the kids and went for a ~~shopping trip~~ adventure to Ikea. I was actually really happy with the amount we spent. The only extra thing I bought was some extra trains for Rohrl’s train set. Mostly so I could get him to sit in the cart downstairs so I could look around.

After Ikea we went to Hobby Lobby where I picked up a yard of Muslin fabric and a roll of Heat’n’Bond (remember I can’t sew). I had two 40% of coupons so that trip cost me about $3. I already had some extra felt at home so the entire project came to a grand total of $10.76; a third of what the real one cost. Now to making it.

Materials You’ll Need:

INNER 20″ cushion from Ikea

GURLI 20″ cover in white from Ikea (right now if you have an Ikea Family Card these are on sale for $3 until Oct. 28)

***Note: You can use any pillow size you want. These were just the cheapest ones I found***

Heat’n’Bond

1 yard of white Muslin fabric

black and white felt

Directions:

1. Cut the eyes out of the felt. I used the outside diameter of the Heat’n’Bond roll for the big black. The inside radius for the big white. A marker cap for the small black and a AAA battery for the small white. ***Tip: I used a silver sharpie to trace on the black so I could see the line when I was cutting***

2. Measure out your strips in fabric. You will want to measure 2″ longer than your pillow so that you have room to connect the fabric on the back. I cut out 15 2″x 22″ pieces

3. Iron the cover to get all the creases out.

4. Place the eyes about 1/3 of the way from the top of the cover and arrange the pieces starting with the big black circle, then big white, little black, little white. ***Note: Make sure that the zipper is on either the top or bottom or you will be sewing the muslin over the zipper.

5. Once you have your eyes how you like them take the large white, small black and small white circles off and cut a small piece of Heat’n’Bond. Place the Heat’n’Bond where you want the eyes to be on the cover and place the large black circle on top.

6. Using an iron on medium heat, iron over the large black circle for 6-10 seconds. Repeat steps 5-6 with the second large black circle.

7. Using the hot glue gun, attach the small white circle to the small black circle. Then glue down the small black circle on to the large white circle. Lastly glue the large white circle (with the other two circles attached to it) on to the large black circle.

8. Repeat step 7 with remaining pieces. Now you have the eyes attached.

9. Line up muslin strips how you want them on pillow. They don’t have to be perfectly straight because a real mummy is wrapped in bandages every which way. Plus you are going to have to take them all off to attach them. This step is just giving you an idea of what the final piece will look like.

10. Remove all strips except for the top one. Hold in place on the edges and flip pillow over. Pull the ends of the fabric tight and cut a small piece of Heat’n’Bond.

11. Fold over edge of muslin on top of Heat’n’Bond and attach to pillow with iron. Run iron over fabric for 6-10 seconds. Repeat with fabric on other side.

12. Repeat steps 10-11 with remaining strips.

13. Turn pillow over and admire the cutenesss! (This step is a must!)

14. Insert cushion insert into cover and zip up pillow. You may notice that the muslin strips are hanging loose. If they are, cut another small piece of Heat’n’Bond and pull the Muslin tight on one end. Fold over end of muslin strip over Heat’n’Bond on back of the pillow and iron for 6-10 seconds. Repeat as necessary with remaining strips. I had to do this with about half of my strips

I apologize I didn’t get more pictures of the steps, I had to quickly iron the strips on before sweet little hands could pull the iron down on themselves.

Even my boys love it! I was a little worried they might be scared because of the googly eyes, but they just cuddled right up to him. The one at Pottery Barn is 12″ and this one is 20″ so it’s quite a bit bigger.. but I like him a lot better!

One of the best parts of this project is the fact that lines don’t have to be perfectly straight. All of the jagged edges and crooked lines add to the character of Max (that is what my boys have named him). This is a super easy and quick (if you don’t have little ones trying to help) project that anyone can do. Give it a try and remember if you see something you love that is just too dang expensive, chances are with a little brainstorming and ingenuity you can make it yourself for a fraction of the price.