Say hello to Tiny Box Tim, a character from the universe of Markiplier. Markiplier being a pretty famous Let's Player on youtube. Essentially that means he plays video games and talks, all of which is recorded and put on youtube for our enjoyment. Yes I do watch him, and yes I do really enjoy his videos.

I blame my love of Let's Players on my older brothers. I was conditioned from a very young age to enjoy watching other people play video games.

Now Tiny Box Tim is a side kick to Markiplier and originally he was just a plain small box. Fan's however felt that Tiny Box Tim deserved a little more care into his appearance and so the version that inspired me was drawn. Most specifically I drew inspiration from version in this animation.

My pillow is a 2 foot by 2 foot square pillow with a custom made pillow case that has an appliqued face and two arms and hands. He's kind of my new favorite thing, he's just SO cute.

Step 1: Gather Materials

1 yard of Light Brown Fabric, I recommend Minky fabric because it is SO soft!
.5 yard of Dark Brown Fabric
2 sheets of White Felt
2 sheets of Light Blue Felt
1 yard of Black Curtain Rope
A sewing machine with black thread
1 24" by 24" Pillow, I bought mine but if you want to make yours
Pattern, to be found below with notes!
Fabric Scissors
Pins!

Step 2: Let's Talk Patterns

So up above are all of Tiny Box Tim features, each of the images should fit on a piece of printer paper but essentially take all of it up The mouth is on two sheets and the edge of his mouth is printed long ways, so make sure you line the mouth up with the pattern before cutting any fabric.

Now for the eyes to save on printing costs I recommend printing out the 1 eye cutting out the white part of the eyes using the whole piece, and then cut the white part off the pattern and then cut out the blue pieces. Remember you need/want two eyes. This way you only need one eye print out.

The eyebrows are just pin and cut, you should have 2 eyebrows.

The nose piece is just a place holder, no fabric needed.

The hand piece you want to cut out 4 of the mitten pieces, just make sure you have two pairs that will fit together right side together.

Now he actual pillow. You want to cut out 1 square out of light brown that is 24" by 24" which will be the front face, 2 light brown rectangles that are 24" by 15" which will overlap in the back,

Lastly the dark brown frame. Each piece should be 3" wide, 6 pieces will 3" by 24" on the bottom and 26" top. If you check the last pictures up there you'll under stand what I mean. The frame pieces are build like frames with 45 degree on the end. So the outer edge will be 26" but the inner edge will be 24", if you have questions don't be scared to ask. You will also need 4 pieces that are 3" wide by 15" on the bottom and 17" top and have the 45 degree angle on one side and be square on the other. So in total for the frame you should have 10 pieces, 6 long ones, and 4 short ones.

Step 3: Watch the Video for More Detail

Now in reality this is a pretty basic Pillow Cover project, and there are a ton of those on instructable, this one is my favorite.

I do two fancy things for the this project. The first one is the satin stitch that keeps all of Tiny Box Tim's features on, and that I did the detail work with. However, that's just my sewing machine, I didn't really do that, or at least not without the magic of technology.

The other fancy thing I do is the ladder stitch which is how the hands look so clean. I briefly show it in the video but I thought it needed it's own tutorial. So the rest of this instructable is showing off the ladder stitch, which is honestly my favorite sewing stitch ever.

Step 4: Ladder Stitch

Why is it my favorite?

BECAUSE IT MAKES EVERYTHING SO CLEAN AND PERFECT! Ok maybe am a little over enthusiastic... but it's so simple and smart so I have to share.

So above is a quick drawing of how the ladder stitch works. The color key is:

Black = Cloth fold and edge lines

Blue = Under 1 layer of fabric

Red = On top of the fabric

So as you can see the only thread on top is when it goes directly across, and then once you go directly across you then go under 1 layer of fabric down the stitch line to the next point you want to go across. Continue until the hole is gone. Ok that's the basics! Let's get to nitty gritty!

Step 5: Prepare You Piece!

So I just made myself a simple circle and sewed two together right side to right side. I left 1 inch hole in the stitch line, then I flipped the whole thing right side out. As you can see I now have a circle that has a hole in the top! Well that HAS to change.

Step 6: Thread Up Your Needle

Grab a sewing needle and thread and get them read to sew! Now I stuffed my piece because often you use a ladder stitch on projects that are stuffed and I want to show how well it works for that. However you can also use it on flat pieces as well!

Now you might have the seam allowances poking out of the hole in your piece so the first thing is to tuck the edge in and manipulate the edge until it sits flat and even with the rest of the piece. Now you can pin this, but I often find that pins get in the way during the ladder stitch so I just hold it with my fingers.

Step 7: BEGIN!

Now stick you needle into your piece, under the seam allowance edge, and bring it up at the edge you have lined up. With this stitch I want you think about sewing two fold lines together. So we're always going to be going through a fold line on either side.

Now pull until the fabric catches your knot. Then simply go across to the other side going down into the other fold line.

Step 8: THE MAGIC!

Alright now here's my favorite part. While poked into the fabric on other side tilt the needle so it's going parallel to the seam. Push the end through the fabric a little bit down from where you started. Pull your thread tight but not gathering.

You should see your seam come together and your stitches disappear! Is so COOL!

Step 9: RINSE AND REPEAT

Yup keeping the same thing until the hole is gone. So go across over the fabric, then parallel under the fabric!

Step 10: It's SO PRETTY!

Yup look at the lack of stitch marks, and I used black thread on light brown fabric! Ok now this is fuzzy fabric so I could get away with a bit more. But man for not fuzzy fabric if you use similarly colored thread the stitches just disappear.

Alright so this my new favorite pillow, he's SO BIG AMD COMFY! If you're inclined to make him, I'd love to see it! However I realize that Tiny Box Tim is from a micro fandom, so I don't expect many/anyone to.

That being said, if you make anything that you use a ladder stitch for I REALLY want to see that as well! I've got such a creative community here I'm sure the skill will prove so useful!

The first 5 people to show me their ladder stitch skills get 3 Months of PRO membership, 5/5 are still available!