Here's our free softie tutorial – how to sew Jo Carter’s plushie pair of romantic robots in super-soft fleece. Batteries not included (or needed!).
You will need
- Fleece fabric: silvery grey, 50x90cm (20x35in)
- Fleece fabric: yellow, 35x45cm (14x18in)
- Felt: white, 20x12cm (8x5in)
- Cotton fabric A (colour 1 for keypad): 7x10cm (23/4x4in)
- Cotton Fabric B (colour 2 for keypad): 7x10cm (23/4x4in)
- Cotton Fabric C (for side control panel): 6x9cm (3x4in)
- Cotton Fabric D (for bottom control panel): 11x6cm (5x3in)
- Safety eyes: black, 12mm (½in) x 2
- Metal teeth zip: white 15cm (6in)
- Polyester toy filling
- Stranded cotton: black and extra colours for detailing
- Water erasable pen
- Download our free robot sewing pattern here
Oh happy days. Each year, July brings the arrival of Sew a softie day. The event is organised by author, designer and teacher Trixi Symonds, who blogs about craft and hand sewing projects at colouredbuttons.com. Sew-a-softie day is an annual celebration of the age-old skill of sewing, and was launched to encourage adults and children of all ages to turn off their computers, put down their smartphones and experience the joy and fulfilment of creating a unique object with their own hands.
Finished size
Approx 35cm (14in) from bottom of body to tip of aerial.
Notes
Use a seam allowance of 5mm (¼in) unless otherwise stated.
Cutting out
You will find all the templates needed to make this project on the free pattern sheet from issue 13 of Simply Sewing magazine. They all include seam allowances and the arrows indicate the pile direction for marking and cutting out. When the pattern specifies to cut two or more of a template, after marking out half of the pieces required the template needs to be turned over to mark out the remaining half so that the pieces are cut as mirror images.
Begin by tracing and cutting out the pattern pieces. Next, using a water erasable pen or pencil, draw out all of the pattern pieces onto the reverse of the fabric and cut out as follows:
From the grey fleece:
- Front/back head: cut one from template and one piece that is 14x16cm (5½x63⁄8in) which will be trimmed to size later.
- Bottom head: cut one
- Side and top head: cut one
- Limb: cut four
- Top/bottom front: cut two
- Side front: cut two
- Top body: cut one
- Side and back body: cut two
- Bottom body: cut two
From the yellow fleece:
- Aerial: cut two
- Hand: cut two
- Foot: cut two
From the white felt:
- Eye patch: cut one
From Fabrics A and B:
- Keypad on control panel: cut two of each
From Fabric C:
- Side control panel: cut one
From Fabric D:
- Bottom control panel: cut one
Making the head
