Hello Crafters!
As obsessed as I am with crochet I never really thought I would create any amigurumi projects. Amigurumi is any crochet project where you are making a figure or doll. It always looked really complex to me and I didn’t think I would get to that level. Well this is one of those oppourtunities where I get to inspire you to aim high!
I found a few really cute stuffed animal patterns and figured I would finally open one up and actually read the directions. Was I surprised! The first pattern I looked at was this adorable giraffe and it is made up of pretty much all single crochet and the pattern is very easy to read (and free!) I figured I would give it a shot and with a few bumps along the way I managed to complete it 🙂
In this tutorial I will be sharing my tips for problems that I ran into along the way as some pictures of my project progress! This is not my pattern as I mentioned above but you can find it for free over at Amigurumi Today’s website.
Supplies for Amigurumi Giraffe
Amigurumi Today’s tutorial suggests using fingering yarn which will be graded with a 2 on the label.
Really any size yarn will work for this project; a bigger yarn will just produce a bigger toy. Be sure to choose the right hook size for your yarn so that the stitches are closely woven otherwise your stuffing might sneak out of the holes.
To follow the pattern you will need three colours of yarn but if you want to get creative and change it up that would be lovely as well!
I used a 2.5 mm hook with the following yarn for my giraffe:
- Easy Knit Baby Luv in “Pink”
- Easy Knit Baby Luv in “Grape”
- Easy Knit Baby Luv in “White”
You will also need polyfil or your choice of material to stuff your giraffe.
Crocheting individual parts
One thing that I had some serious trouble with was the legs. I have never tried to crochet in the round with multiple colours before and believe me if you do you will end up with some weird looking seams!
Here is a photo of my first failure 🙁
Pretty scary right?
I tried a lot of different methods to hide the join and nothing worked well for me until I stumbled upon a video from June Gilbank it literally saved my project! June’s video demonstrates a really simple way to make your joins seamless and your rows perfectly straight. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO3C7ji4QBE
Assembling your giraffe
Once you have finished all the parts of your amigurumi giraffe you should have something that looks like this collection of stray body parts:
When attaching the pieces pin them in place first so you can decide on the look of all the pieces together before you start to attach them for real. I used a simple slip stitch to attach all the parts.
I attached the head first so that I could get a good idea of where to place everything else but it’s really up to you how you want to attach all the pieces!
Once all the parts are together it should look something like this:
It’s almost there!
Finishing touches
There are a lot of options when it comes to eyes for your amigurumi projects. I just decided to use black thread to sew on some round eyes. One way to make sure your eyes end up being round is this simple trick that I used. Sew a star shape where you want the eye to be and then simply weave the thread over and under each thread starting in the center and going around until you have covered up the star.
Once you have completed the eyes you can get creative with adding any accessories that you would like! I made a cute scarf with a few rows of v stitch. If you have never used v stitch before it is very simple; if you know double crochet you will have no problem with it. To check out v stitch you can head over to my easy v stitch tutorial.
Thank you so much to Amigurumi Today for sharing this awesome ‘Hearty Giraffe’ pattern 🙂
Happy crafting!
