…and he only clogged the feed dogs once!
If you own Bonnie Burton’s “Star Wars Craft Book” then you’ll be familiar with the Jabba the Hutt Body Pillow. A few months ago I showed the book to my boyfriend and he loved the Jabba pattern so I said I’d make it for him for Christmas.
My Jabba’s made from two throws (bed spreads) and five and half bed pillows.
I followed the instructions for wrapping the pillows with the green throw and deciding on the best layout to make his sluggy shape.
In the book he’s hand sewn but I was determined to machine sew Jabba as much as physically possible. I rounded off the end off the head part of the throw.
Next I cut out the sluggy head and stomach shape from the second, beige, throw. I had hoped to overcast the edge of this under my machine but this is where the fabric got stuck in the feed dogs of the sewing machine. So, plan b was to turn the edges of the fabric under twice and machine hem it. I made paper patterns for his facial features and it was a lot easier cutting them out with the patterns than going free hand.
The book calls for you to hand sew his face-stomach first and then add his features but I sewed his features to the stomach first for the sake of convenience.
As you’ll see my Jabba looks quite a happy Jabba because I didn’t crook his mouth that much.
In the end, the only parts of him that were hand sewn were his facial features. However the machine sewing did mean that I had to squeeze the pillow filled cover under my sewing machine.
You may question my sanity here because it was pretty tricky and very awkward to do! When I was halfway through the sewing I had to balance some of the pillow filled case over the top of my iMac, it’s just behind my sewing machine, in order to spread the weight and awkwardness! It was worth it though as I really dislike sewing by hand.
I split open a sixth bed pillow and used half of the filling inside to stuff his tail. I then finished the sewing and sealed off the end of the throw.
I had hoped to make his cover removable and therefore machine-washable, the felt I used for his face can be machine washed at 30 degrees, but I ran out of time. It might be possible at a later date to undo the main back seam and insert a zip but I would have to remove, or seal inside, the loose tail stuffing.
I think he took about a day in total to make but I’m really pleased with how he turned out! He’s really comfy in case you’re wondering what it’s like to squish five and half bed pillows into a sluggy shape.
He’s currently chilling out on my daybed before he’s moved in the new year to my boyfriend’s place. I have yet to decide if I may make another Jabba for me!
wow! Just came across this and now I really, really want a Jabba body pillow!!