Amigurumi: How to sew Together

Droid Family Sitting Kitty Twitterpated Monkeys Droid Carrot the Bunny Jingle Turtle 

Ask and you shall receive! I've had lots of queries about how to sew together some of the amigurumi animals and androids I make. Sewing it together just right does give each creation a lot of it's character! So... I'm glad you asked. It was also easily the most intimidating thing for me when making my first amigurumi. I just went at it as I couldn't find any good instructions... and it didn't look... too bad. But being the improver (Not a word, I know. Read perfectionist, if you must.) that I am, I've tried many different ways to sew them on and settled on this being the best. So I will share and hopefully relieve some intimidation from someone somewhere.

I pay a lot of attention to the position of the pieces and get them at just the right angle before I begin. I usually mock up by using my 3 hands to hold together the head, body, arms, and legs to get a visual of the positions I want before I start. Then I sew the head on to the body first, then ears, then arms and legs and finally, if there is one, the tail. Whether I'm sewing two open pieces together, an open piece to a closed piece, two closed pieces together, or a flat piece to a closed piece... I use this method to get nearly invisible secure stitches.

Thread the tail from one of your pieces onto a yarn needle.

 (Don't use a different color yarn from what you want to sew together! This is for illustrative purposes only. You'll probably be sewing two pieces together that are the same color... and use that color yarn.)

Hold the two pieces together exactly how you want them and weave your needle into the second piece, right opposite where the yarn comes out of the first piece, and out of it just a stitch away.

Keep holding it together (I wasn't doing a very good job here as I WAS holding the camera too...) and weave the needle into the first piece, just opposite where the yarn came out last, and out of it as pictured.

I'm actually weaving the yarn around the post of the sc stitch. If you look at it from the bottom it looks like this. You went under one V of your stitch, then under the next V of the next stitch. See?

Keep going all the way around. Even with the contrasting colors, if you pull your yarn firmly as you go, the stitches are nearly invisible and you get a really nice seam. I do knot it around the last stitch at the end and weave it in.

Enjoy making your creations come alive!

Ripple Lace Fingerless Gloves

This is one of my favorite patterns and one of my first ever. I don't know why I spaced till now on posting it. The finished product is available for sale in my store www.bethsco.com. They make a great Christmas present to keep hands warm when you need your fingers free... like when at the computer, crocheting, knitting, etc.

Ripple Lace Fingerless Gloves

I used a G hook and 2 ply sport alpaca wool blend yarn. Gauge is not too important nor is yarn or hook as you will make these gloves to fit. You do want to use a rather large hook for the yarn you are using so the end product will be stretchy.

blo= back loop only

Chain a multiple of 6. My chain was 30 (5x6.) Your chain should stretch comfortably around the widest part of your hand but not be too loose around your wrist. If you’re having a hard time getting a good fit, keep in mind you can switch to a larger hook around row 15 or 16 to make the top of the glove looser.

Right Glove
Row 1: Join to 1st ch with sl st, ch 1, sc blo around, sl st blo of 1st sc
Row 2: Ch 3, 2dc in same back loop as sl st, sk 2, dc blo, sk 2, *5dc blo (shell), sk 2, dc blo, sk 2*, repeat around, end with 2dc in the same back loop as the “ch 3, 2dc” at the beginning of this row, sl st in the top chain of the ch 3, (5 shells and 5 dc total)
Row 3: Ch 1, sc blo around, join with sl st blo (30 sc total)
Row 4-17: Repeat rows 2 and 3
(You may do more or less sets of rows depending on how long you want the gloves to be. The next row, that I have numbered as row 18 is the thumb hole row. You might want to switch to the next size larger crochet hook for a couple rows before the thumb hole row.)
Row 18/ Thumb hole row: Ch 3, 2dc in same back loop as sl st, sk 2, dc blo, sk 2, 2dc blo, ch 5, skip 5, 2dc blo, sk 2, *shell, sk 2, dc blo, sk 2* repeat around, end with 2dc same back loop as ch 3 and 2dc at the beginning of this row, sl st in the top of the ch 3
Row 19/Row after thumb hole: Repeat row 3
Row 20: Ch 3, 2dc in same back loop as sl st, sk 2, dc blo, sk 2, 5dc blo (shell), sk 1, dc blo, sk 1, *5dc blo (shell), sk 2, dc blo, sk 2*, repeat around, end with 2dc in the same back loop as the “ch 3, 2dc” at the beginning of this row, sl st in the top chain of the ch 3, (5 shells and 5 dc total)
Row 21-25: Repeat rows 3 and 2, alternating.
(Again you can do more or less sets of rows depending on how long you want the gloves to be.)
Finish off

Left Glove
-You can follow the same pattern as the right glove. But, if you want to shift the location of the thumb hole so that the "seam" (where you've been joining at the end of each row) will be on the palm side of the glove, change row 18 and row 20.
Row 18: do shells and dcs as before until 2 shells before the end of the row. Then do 2 dc blo, ch 5, sk 5, 2 dc blo, sk 2, dc blo, sk 2, 2dc in same loop as beginning ch 3 and 2dc at the beginning of this row, sl st in top of ch 3.
Row 20: do shells and dcs as before until just above the thumb hole. There, only skip 1 stitch before and after the dc blo.

Please use this pattern for personal purposes, gifts, or charity only and don’t sell the finished product or the pattern. Please don’t copy the pattern either. You can feel free to link to my blog or store. If you want to translate the pattern into a different language, feel free to, just link back to me please. Thanks!

Knit Look Crochet Stretchy Hat

Knitting is still intimidating me some. But I really wanted to make the baby a knit hat this winter because I love the look. And I know I can do it. Still, every time I go to do a gauge swatch I end up starting another project instead.

When I saw a pattern that looked like knit but used sl st blo for the whole project, I was sold. It took a while to design and finish it but in the end I was very very happy with the hat and how stretchy it is.

Knit Look Crochet Stretchy Hat

Size- probably fits 9 months to 18 months at least. It is stretchy enough width-wise to fit around my 7 year old's head but isn't long enough for her... Maybe another 5 stitches long and it would fit a child. Anyway in inches that's 12 inches (un-stretched) to about 20 inches (stretched) diameter. Amazing, right? And for length, about 6 inches crown to brim.

This hat is NOT worked in the round, but flat, and sewn up afterward. The seam is fairly unnoticeable though and this is definitely the most stretchy crochet material I've ever seen! Be careful not to miss stitches as it is easy to do if you don't keep count. When you're working it up it seems much longer (crown to brim) than it will be when it's done... some of the sideways stretch takes from the length... if that makes sense.

Caron Simply Soft yarn
Size K crochet hook

blo= back loop only

Chain 31
Row 1: sl st blo in 2nd stitch from hook and each after, chain 1, turn (30 total)
Row 2: sl st blo all stitches, chain 1, turn (30 total)
Row 3: sl st blo in next 27 stitches, chain 1, turn (27 total)
Row 4: sl st blo all stitches, chain 1, turn (27 total)
Row 5: sl st blo in next 24 stitches, chain 1, turn (24 total)
Row 6: sl st blo all stitches, chain 1, turn (24 total)
Row 7: sl st blo in next 21 stitches, chain 1, turn (21 total)
Row 8: sl st blo all stitches, chain 1, turn (21 total)
Row 9: sl st blo in next 18 stitches, chain 1, turn (18 total)
Row 10: sl st blo all stitches, chain 1, turn (18 total)
Row 11: sl st blo in next 21 stitches, chain 1, turn (21 total) In this row and in the following rows that call for more stitches than are in the row below, stitch up to the end of the row immediately below, then continue on the next row below that until your number of stitches is complete. So, in row 11 you will do 18 of the stitches on top of row 10, and the remaining 3, to make your total of 21, on top of row 8...
Row 12: sl st blo all stitches, chain 1, turn (21 total)
Row 13: sl st blo in next 24 stitches, chain 1, turn (24 total)
Row 14: sl st blo all stitches, chain 1, turn (24 total)
Row 15: sl st blo in next 27 stitches, chain 1, turn (27 total)
Row 16: sl st blo all stitches, chain 1, turn (27 total)
Row 17: sl st blo in next 30 stitches, chain 1, turn (30 total)
Row 18: sl st blo all stitches, chain 1, turn (30 total)
Now you've finished 1/4th of the hat so...
Repeat Rows 1-18 3 times.
Finish off and, with the tail, sew up the side seam by folding the hat in half and slip stitching through both thicknesses. Join stitches at the very top of the hat together by running the yarn through each stitch like a loop then tightening it, knotting discretely, and working in the ends.

Please use this pattern for personal purposes, gifts, or charity only and don’t sell the finished product or the pattern. Please don’t copy the pattern either. You can feel free to link to my blog or store. If you want to translate the pattern into a different language, feel free to, just link back to me please. Thanks!

Homeschooling with a toddler in tow: Colors

I've saved Israel's favorite "school" for last. He has LOVED learning about colors. You can find my other "Homeschooling with a toddler in tow" posts here: ABCs and Fishing for ABCs and 123s.

Matching colors- Because my toddler only knew a few color names to begin with I wanted to get him acquainted with them at a most basic level first. If you start where you know they will succeed, they will feel very accomplished! So I picked a marker of each color and scribbled with it on the paper. He then had to match the marker to the color and draw with that color on the paper.

Fruits and Veggies- We talked about how we like to eat fruits and veggies of all different colors. Then I drew the outline of a strawberry with red, banana with yellow, broccoli with green, watermelon with pink... etc. etc. He started naming off the fruits that were different colors and handing me the crayons. Then he got to color each one in with the right color. We talked about the color names the whole time. At the end I asked what color the apple was, etc, etc. He got a surprising number right.

He wanted to do these two things over and over again every day for a while. I outlined the fruits with a pencil the next times and had him fill in the right colors on his own.

Rainbow- Outline a rainbow with all the colors and your toddler can fill in the stripes.

A word on this whole schooling toddlers thing. Let it be known that I DON'T push my toddler to learn. Israel wanted to scribble with a pencil over his rainbow. That was fine. He was 2. I talked to a girlfriend about what I do with preschoolers a few months ago. The truth is, I instill love of learning. I don't discipline them to sit and learn. There's plenty of discipline in his life, trust me! Just not about schooling. These activities are optional in our house until they get to be around 5 years old... or depending on the child. I don't really think that Israel will be reading and counting very soon because I'm teaching him these things earlier. But I do think that he'll read and count sooner because we LOVE learning and when he does get to the age where he has a capacity to read he will... most likely... eagerly read. And hopefully he will enjoy reading and learning his whole life. Also, I see his attention span getting longer and I don't think he'll have the trouble Drew did at first with not being accustomed to a little more structure in schooling.

Another word... on materials this time. I love seeing how resourceful my kids have become because they see me whip out a blank piece of paper and create a lesson rather than spending a lot of money at the teacher's resource store on fancy charts and books and whatever else. They tend to use what's around them now. Drew just the other day when she was looking at buying a paper quilling kit told me... "I bet we could make a tool like that easily. And I could cut paper myself!" That girl is just a wee bit like her mother! It's scary at times. I'm almost certain she can see what I'm thinking.

Another fun thing to do with colors is to feature a color a day. Early on, when one of the only colors Israel knew was green, I did green as a feature color and pointed out green things and revisited that one when asking him what color something was. I saved yellow for at least a few days later, as he was least familiar with it.

A hunt around the house is very fun as well. You can have your toddler find items in the feature color of the day and put them in a pile.

Homeschooling with a toddler in tow: 123s

Today I'm continuing my topic of activity ideas to include your toddler in "school" while homeschooling. On to playing and learning with numbers! For this one, your toddler should be past the "put everything in the mouth" stage.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post introducing this topic, Israel could already recite numbers up to ten. I don't think he really grasped the fact that each number represented an amount though. I grabbed my mancala game board (though a bunch of little cups or bowls could substitute) and put a paper with numbers one through ten in each spot. Then he used dry beans and, with just a little help, put the right number in each hole.

You could say he LOVED it... And that it was so fun that big sister couldn't keep her hands off it either.

If your toddler is a little more advanced than this you could fill each spot with some beans and have them count and match the right number to them.

Again, with a lot of homeschooling things, take advantage of everyday situations to talk about numbers and amounts and count.

And then, of course, let them play with the beans after because you can probably get a couple hours of school done with your older one(s) while the toddler just dumps beans from container to container and throws them all over the house. Beans are way too much fun!

When your toddler is more advanced you can make a 123 game like this one below to mix it up a little. They can make it with you and color in the items and help decide which items to use. Then they match the number to the amount of objects in the square.

Homeschooling with a toddler in tow: Fishing for ABCs

I am not a morning person... though I've worked long and hard at being pleasant in the morning and now we do our schooling first thing every morning.

Not at all a morning person though. And... I don't like coffee. Instead, orange juice is my coffee. Orange juice is like sunshine in a cup and I love it! Yes, this has something to do with my subject. I'm coming around to it...

After many years of throwing away the frozen orange juice container tops I thought of a really awesome thing to do with them. Make an ABC fishing game! So it took a while of saving them up but when we had all  of 26 can tops we put alphabet stickers on them.

And on the backs we put things that start with that letter sound. F for flowers and fish... O for orange... W for worm and watermelon... and B for bee, bird, butterfly, bug, and bow. Just doing this is a lesson in and of itself.

But then, for the real fun, we tied a magnet to a stick with a string and went fishing!

You can see the baby in the background. Yes, I homeschool with a toddler and baby in tow. :)

Look! He caught an A!

Again, you can use this for letter recognition. I showed him a card with an A on it and then he had to find the A and fish for it. Later you could use it for the phonics sounds by turning all the "fish" over and having them find B by looking for the words that start with the sound "B." And even later this is a fun spelling game. You could also use it for your older ones by telling them to fish for all the vowels or fish for the letter clusters that say "tion."

A fun activity that has a lot of applications! And takes some hand eye coordination too.

Homeschooling with a toddler in tow: ABCs

Last year was my first year "really" homeschooling. Which meant it was the first year we sat down and did hours of school everyday. Of course some of the learning was not sitting down. The point is that my poor 2 year old was VERY bored. Some days he did fine. I threw a snack at him and then he disappeared to play for a little bit. He did love science as we were learning a lot about animals and did a lot of hands on activities. But the majority of the time he was lonely at best. This year I vowed to do better for the little guy.

Our first day of school this year we made a very special school paper for Israel and put it up on our school wall with our calender, Drew's spelling words, and verses, etc. It is a visual of some learning activities he can choose from: shapes, colors, letters, numbers, and getting read to. He was so thrilled to be included this year! Excuse please the scribbles and tears on the paper... This is real life and this paper has had much use!

There are SO many learning activities for 2 or 3 year olds! The key if you ask me (and you are on my blog so...) is to make it casual, flexible, and fun! The goal is to provide the opportunity to learn and the most important thing they are learning is... the love of learning!

When I started this Israel could (mostly) sing his ABCs, say his numbers to ten, and knew the names for a few colors and shapes.

Find some fun Alphabet for a toddler ideas below:

1. One of the first things we did was letter matching. We put together the ABC puzzle mat we have and jumped letter to letter while we sang the alphabet song. This helped him mentally match each letter with its name. The ABC puzzle mat is one of the few materials we do have and we use often. Drew (at 7 years old) still uses it for "jump spelling" which is an awesome active way to get a kid to do their spelling! You could draw the ABCs with chalk on a driveway as a substitute.

2. The next step with ABCs was to become familiar with the shapes of the letters. Israel matched alphabet blocks to the same letter on the mat. You could do this same thing with alphabet cards and blocks, or again use chalk outside.

3. We talk a lot about alphabet sounds casually. A says (insert phonic sound) like apple.

Hmm... It seems my blogging time is yet again up. A side effect of LIFE with a toddler in tow. So see tomorrow for another super fun idea to teach ABCs to toddlers!

Thankful Tree

Thankfulness can change your life! When you make a decision to be thankful for the blessings you have... you can't help but be caught up with joy. No matter how bad things are, even when it's hard to say one thing you are thankful for, when thankfulness enters the picture, the atmosphere changes. I've been there and as glad as I am to be in a different place today... I'm more glad for the lessons that I learned in that place.

One of my biggest predicaments this holiday season is getting some of the people in my family presents. It's not so much a what-do-you-get-the-person-that-has-everything problem as it is a what-do-you-get-the-person-that-is-happy-because-they-live-extremely-simply-with-only-necessities problem. I love minimalism and the joy that comes with it and I'm thankful that I learned from early on that I didn't NEED that toy (or whatever it was) I merely wanted it. I try to make sure all that wanting that tends to well up... only gets attention after I focus on the many blessings we have.

Anyway, my favorite holiday thing to do is our family's thankful tree...

We cut out leaves from colorful paper and all of us write or draw what we are thankful for and put our initials on the back of the leaves.

I love how full the tree gets with so many things we are thankful for! We are so blessed!

Apparently I'm getting sentimental in my old age and saved the last couple years leaves. It was fun to find the leaf from last year that mentioned "the baby" and look at her now. Though we didn't know if it was a girl or boy growing in my belly last time this year we were so thankful. And now she's a happy healthy girl who tried banana and loved it, crawled forward, and pulled up on the coffee table for the first times today.

One handed!

A thankful tree is an incredible tradition to start and keep up! We use this metal tree but branches in a vase would be beautiful as well! 

Huggable Art Part 2

This is a part two from yesterday's post on how to make your kid's art huggable. So today, I'll tell you how I put the hair on the little girl Drew wanted to make from her picture.

When Drew said her Little Lady needed pigtails I was totally intimidated! Sewing hair on a doll just seemed completely over my head. So I researched it, did my best, and was actually pleased with the process and result. Because the doll is on a pillow it is not the traditional doll hair and oddly enough it ended up with four pigtails. Two for the front; two for the back. A little weird but it worked out.

It really wasn't hard. So don't be intimidated yourself if you want to make pigtails/braids! I've illustrated every step of the process for you. And I loved how cute it came out... Drew did too!





The hair needs to be put on before the pieces are sewn together. First, I laid out the yarn to find out how long it needed to be at the longest.

Then I straightened up the yarn and looped it back and forth until there was enough to cover the back of the head. Repeat. You'll need pigtails for the front so loop yarn back and forth again, same length, same number of times so that the front and back will match.

Then I spread out the hair... measuring with a ruler to be sure it's centered on the head.

To secure the hair in place I taped the hair down with masking tape (I'll try painters tape if I do it again so it's less sticky) and marked the center line with pins so I knew where to sew. If I were you I'd just sew it up now. I ended up regretting my next step. :)

I read that tissue was a good idea so I took out those pins marking the center line and instead pinned some tissue (ahem... toilet tissue... but in my defense I also read that worked fine) over the hair. The only thing good about this idea was I got a nice straight line because I drew one on the tissue.

Then I sewed it back and forth a few times.

This is where the regret came into play. When I pulled the tissue up it left fuzz under the stitches. I picked at it for a while and then did what I was going to anyway and stitched over the thread with the same yarn I used for the hair. It was fine in the end.

But when I sewed the front I just held the hair in place with my fingers and it worked very well. Especially because the hair was bunched up instead of spread out I held it together while sewing.

I pulled up the masking tape very carefully. It didn't mess up the yarn really but next time I'd be more careful to not put it on embroidered parts... like the eyes above... Like I said I stitched with yarn over the parts and drew the yarn together at the top of the pigtails and stitched them there with yarn.

Lastly, I gently pulled up the hair and used my glue gun to secure it to the head. I left the pigtails free.

That's it! I sewed her together then! So, go back to yesterday's post if you're following along how to make! :)

Huggable Art

Once again I got inspiration from Pinterest for this project and I give credit where due for this awesome idea. Here is where I saw the idea to turn a child's drawing into a pillow/stuffed doll-ish thing. Unfortunately there was no instructions or more info about them there so I decided to do it my own way.

The kids loved the idea and started drawing. Drew made the bird for her cousin's one year old birthday. It's a great way to give art to a baby! I can't count the times Drew's been sad that her gift to a baby got torn up and chewed on. And she made the Little Girl for herself. Israel wanted to make a "Little Dude." I helped him draw it... we both held the pencil. We dressed him up just like Israel in his favorite football shirt! And Israel even helped embroider him with yarn!

We gave them  backs too which was a lot of fun, especially for the little boy and girl pillows. Just in case you'd like to make one of your little artist's creation into a huggable art pillow, I shall tell you how I did.

I bet this could be made using something clever like photo transfer paper. You could scan the drawing into the computer and print it on the transfer paper then iron the image on fabric. But that's not how I did it...

I made the drawings darker with a dark pen (left.)

Then, I turned the paper over and traced the lines I could see through the paper to make the mirror image of the picture. This is for the back of the huggable art. You can see I left out the lines on the tail. Drew wanted to do a different design on that side (below.)



I used a very lightweight white cotton fabric I had leftover from a laundry bag. It was much like a soft pillowcase fabric. I laid fabric over each drawing and traced the lines lightly with a pencil. It is easiest to see to trace with good indirect natural lighting. Which is funny because my pictures are really dark. Sorry about that...

Stack your two fabrics, right sides out and drawings lined up and cut around them leaving extra space around the drawings (below.) You could leave more or less space depending on the size of the drawing. I always leave too little when doing pillows and I solved that problem this time by adding a strip of fabric to make sides and a more 3 D effect. I liked it in the end. But all this to say, if you'd rather keep it a simple pillow, leave more space around the drawing to account for seams plus stuffing.

Drew decided what parts of the bird she wanted to embroider (with yarn) and what part she wanted to choose fabrics for. I must say after embroidering the tail on one side, she was pretty excited about the ease of appliqueing fabric. I was too!

It doesn't matter much whether you embroider or applique first. Just do both before you sew it together! If you are going to do hair on your doll (like the girl doll above) check out this post on how to make the hair before you sew your pillow together.

To applique, I used the original drawings cut out as a pattern to trace the fabric shapes. 

We cut out the shapes and put them on double sided fusable web for appliqueing and cut out around them.

Then we ironed them on. At this point you really could just put them right sides together and sew around leaving a hole for turning and stuffing... then sew up the hole after. But, no such ease for me, I was stingy with the fabric when cutting and really had a feeling it wouldn't turn out well without more fabric.

So I measured the circumference (around the drawing) and cut a 3" wide strip of coordinating fabric that was long enough to go all the way around. I sewed this right sides together to one of sides. When you start sewing it, make sure to leave a bit of the end of the strip un-sewn. You can see it sticking up there below. That's for the seam later. You can pin it around but I just eased it into place as I sewed.

When you get that sewed all the way around you want sew the other side of the strip to the other side of the fabric. See below to see how I matched it up to the right place...

Do make sure you line them up correctly or the pillow will be... wonky. I did come up with a better way to do this by huggable art #3 so please excuse the project switch as I show you how...

After you sew the strip on the front, lie your project like below.

Then place the back over it right sides together matching them up.

It should now be pretty easy to see where to begin sewing the strip to the back. Pinch them together and pin and sew around.

I used the hole left in the side... at the un-sewn ends of the fabric strip to turn the pillow right side out...

And stuff it. And then I sewed it up by hand.

Voila! I love my kid's drawings!

Oh, wait! The hair. Oh, the hair... Little Dude's hair was just a LOT of random stitching. The Little Girl's hair... I will leave to tomorrow. :)