Super Mario Templates

A while back I made a present for a friend who happens to be a Super Mario Bros. nut.  I came up with this pixelated Mario tote bag.  Each little square is one inch sewn.  I am also a bit of a Super Mario Bros. fan, so I had a hard time gift wrapping it and sending it off :)

I made up a few templates when I was deciding what image to go with for her bag, and I thought I would share the templates I made up in case anyone else wanted to try it out.  There is Mario, a Mushroom,  a Goomba, and a Fire Flower.

Super Mario Bros. Templates

Of course this isn't limited to tote bags, you can make quilts, pillows, backpacks, messenger bags, whatever you can think of! I used a spreadsheet program (excel) to create my templates using game images found on google.  If you would like to create your own template of a special character open up a spreadsheet and start filling in colors!

The technique is quite easy, yet very time consuming.  The product- so worth it!  I did not take pictures when I made this, but I will list out the steps I followed.  I used quilting cottons that were 42" wide.

1. Cut your fabric into 1.5" strips.  Follow the template for the number of strips to cut of each color
2. Mark your strips.  I did not cut hundreds of little individual squares.  I marked out the seam allowance with a fabric marker so I could sew the sections of the same color together more easily. I used 1/4" seam allowance so the pattern went like this:  1/4" 1" 1/2" 1" 1/2"...
3. Cut and sew your strips to match the horizontal strips in the template. I went by each color.  Pinch the 1/2" of seam allowance and sew down to make your seam, repeat until you have the number of squares necessary for your section.  To cut your long strip into sections, find the 1/2" seam allowance and cut in half so there is 1/4" on each side of the 1" square.
4. Sew the sections into horizontal strips, following the template.
5. Press down the seams.
6. Sew the horizontal strips together.
7.  Press the seams again.
Voila!