Steampunk Valentine Swap

I recently hosted a Steampunk Valentine swap and the person I was sending to was Roberta Birnbaum.  For Roberta’s Valentine, I decided to go with something a little out of the ordinary instead of the traditional paper kind.  So, I made her a little Steampunk stuffie.  I got the idea after checking the book Steampunk Softies by Nicola Tedman and Sarah Skeate out of the library.  It’s a great book filled with ideas for little stuffed toys (decorative not the kind to be played with) with Steampunk flair. 

I drew my own pattern for this little guy, creating the body out of a rounded arch shape and using hearts for the head and the wings.  I cut the pieces out of felt, using a glitter felt for the wings and a textured felt for the body.  Using embroidery floss and a blanket stitch, I sewed each piece together, lightly stuffing them with polyester fibre fill.  I assembled the softie by sewing it together,  creating a flat bottom on it so that it would stand up.

I embellished the softie with eyes made of metal washers, a metal ring I found amongst some random bits of hardware, and a tiny mirror.  The nose/mouth is a key from a sardine can.  I gave him (her? it?) a small plastic lacy heart on its chest as a little nod to my love of Raggedy Anns.  Unfortunately, the metal on the face added enough weight to the doll that it no longer would stand up properly so I needed to balance it out. 

On the doll’s back, I attached some items to its wings.  There’s a gold pin – it’s similar to a large safety pin with a number on it and was used in war time as a laundry tag for one of the soldiers.  Hanging from the pin are two fishing weights and two small heart charms.

It was lots of fun to make and I foresee many more of these Steampunk softies in my future!