CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Most everyone has seen memes of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders from Inauguration Day.
Now, the viral photo of the bundled-up senator has come to life in a new way.
Tobey King, owner of Tobey Time Crochet out of Corpus Christi, Texas, made a crochet doll of the senator in his now-iconic pose.
“It’s mind blowing, because I knew Bernie was trending because of that picture and I already had a Bernie pattern and a Bernie doll, so I just went and got that and I modified that super quick,” King told KIII-TV.
Although King already had a Bernie doll, the modifications to recreate the viral photo took a bit of time.
“From beginning to (end), I didn’t get up and it was seven hours, but that’s on top of the hours and hours of designing that I did a year ago,” said King.
King crafted every single detail, including the iconic mittens.
“The mittens are not that hard, it’s just some color changing, a special stitch,” said King.
After creating the doll, she decided to share the pattern online so that others could make the doll.
“I’m so happy, just so happy that everybody is making their own little Bernie and putting some Bernies out there,” said King. “It just makes everybody so happy.”
King said she wasn’t sure what to do with the doll, but with some inspiration from the senator and her friend, she found a way to help others.
“She said, 'You know, well, Bernie just sold a bunch of sweatshirts and donated to Meals on Wheels Vermont,' and I said, 'That is perfect. That is what I want to do,'” said King.
King put the doll up for auction on eBay.
“I put it up for 99 cents and then a few minutes later I went to take a screenshot and I was like, 'Wow it’s five bucks,'” said King.
The final bid in the auction was $20,300. King pledged to donate all of the profits to Meals on Wheels America. According to CNN, eBay announced they were inspired by King's promise and matched the winning bid to "help support even more people in need."
In the end, the charity will receive more than $40,000 from the sale of the doll.
“This could be my purpose; this is my new path,” said King. “This is a new way of helping people in a way that I’ve never been able to do before."
For the "DIY" crowd, King is selling the pattern she used to make the now-famous doll in her Etsy shop.
Sanders isn't the first politician King has turned into a work of art. Her website also shows off her work creating crochet dolls of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as a doll of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which even made an appearance on NBC's "This Is Us."