Partly Cloudy: Crochet Pillows for Kids Tutorial

I’m never sure when we can officially declare “summer is here”. Even though I’ve been carelessly sunburned twice already (I should really be more careful), there have been many days when it was quite cloudy, or even worse - sand stormy (yuck!). Given that the weather hasn’t stabilized yet on “hot, humid and unbearable”, I have to check what the weather will be every day, so I can decide if it’s long pants or shorts for the kids. And there it was that inspiration struck me and I HAD to make a partly cloudy set of pillows.

As usual, I started with no specific recipient in mind, and my children took them over as soon as they possibly could. So I guess we’ll have another set of pillows to fill the kids’ beds (as if we don’t have enough junk dolls in there already).

In order to make the partly cloudy set you will need basic crochet-in-a-circle skills, so while making all the pieces might take a while, it shouldn’t be very difficult.

A Doll House To Go

I made this doll house a while ago with a pattern from one yard wonders. Later, I found the same pattern in a free online tutorial, so - you can enjoy it without buying the book (though I am a fan). Personally, I would modify the pattern not to include so much hand sewing, but otherwise, it’s an excellent idea and the result is really sweet.

I had big plans for the interior - dolls and furniture and more, but I never got around to it, You know how it is… Finally, I decided that the doll house must be put into use one way or another, and started to think about what would be the easiest way for me to make dolls. I decided on finding a cute doll design and printing on fabric. The first part turned out to be much harder than I thought, whereas the second part much easier…

Finally I found this design on Sweet Clip Art, I modified it a little bit because I wanted a little boy and girl, but not holding hands (and I added the smiley face and flower’s to the boy’s shirt and girl’s dress). I chose the colors for the first set (on the left), and then my son decided he wanted a pair as well, so he got to choose the colors for the second pair (on the right). I was a little afraid of printing on fabric, but I found instructions for a simple technique which worked surprisingly well and it worked out fine: All you have to do is cut your fabric a size that your printer accepts, take some cardstock the same size and stick the edge slightly inset from the card’s edge with scotch tape. The edge will slide into the printer easily and the card will provide the necessary stiffness for printing. Easy as pie!

Because the fabric was quite see through, I ironed on some white interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric, and then cut out the doll shapes with a 1.5 cm seam allowance. Then I traced those shapes on a contrasting fabric (don’t forget to put the doll shapes face down…) and cut them out. I sewed them together right sides together, leaving a gap for turning right side out, stuffed them, sewed the gap closed and hey - 4 dolls!

Interestingly enough, my daughter showed no interest in the doll house before it had dolls, or the first doll before it was in the doll house, but together - she loves them!

Monster Mushroom Crochet Doll Tutorial

After I made my daughter a rubber crochet ducky, my son got jealous and requested a monster. We’ve been playing Super Mario on our Wii, so I was inspired by the mushrooms when I designed this monster.

Well, as usual, I’m happy to share. So here goes:

Quack-Quack: Crochet Duck Tutorial

Do I really need to explain why I wanted to crochet a duck? They’re so cute, and my daughter loves them. I knew that she would love it, and I was right! She absolutely insisted to take it to day care and won’t let it go long enough for me to get a good picture. See?

This pattern took a little “figuring out”, because I wasn’t sure how I was going to get the curvy tail shape, and I really wanted to make it one continuous piece instead of making separate body and head pieces and sewing them together. Well, here goes:

Mini Crochet Birthday Cake Tutorial

I just thought I’d make a small something for my mother’s birthday tomorrow (well, really – in about 30 minutes). I won’t be able to see her on her birthday, but a bit of cake would be nice, right?

Stuffed Toy Snake Tutorial

When we were in London, many years ago, we bought a stuffed snake. Years later, both our children love it and fight often over who gets to play with it. When my daughter went to day care, and I made her a snake to take with her. So, of course, my son wanted one too.

When I made hers, I still had a small amount of Etsuko Furuya Glasses fabric in pink (from our local fabric shop budulina), so I decided to incorporate that in the design – her snake got glasses. When I made the manly version (also with fabrics from budulina) I didn’t have any left, so I drew on plain eyes.

All the sizes given in this tutorial are appropriate for fitting a pair of glasses on the snake’s
head, but of course – you can make it any size you want!

Crochet Cat Toy/Scarf Tutorial

A while ago I got a truck load of yarn from my mother. The black yarn is always useful, and the turquoise and light blue were used in a boy’s baby blanket I made as a gift. Here I am, “stuck” with about 5-6 balls of grey yarn, without an idea what to make. I asked some friends and readers, and everyone suggested various grey animals: mice, elephants and cats. I already made an elephant once and wasn’t happy with the result (I need to think of a better design than the pattern I used). Mice can be cute, but I really like cats, so I decided to go in that direction. Maybe I’ll make a mouse for the cat to play with next…
I made the body flat because I thought it was softer and more cuddly that way, but it can also be made into a cute scarf if you make the body long enough. You could also make it into a pillow by making 2 body pieces, stuffing them and sewing closed.



So, here’s how to make her (it’s definitely a she):

Timmy the Lamb - Crochet Doll Tutorial

My son loves Timmy the Lamb. I agree. Stop frame animation is one of my favorite animation types, and this one is styled so nicely. The stories have little or no speech, so they are appropriate for younger ages, but the story has enough nuances to be interesting to older children and grownups as well.
Timmy the lamb is not to be confused with Shaun the sheep, who may or may not be related to Timmy. They are similar, but Shaun has wool on his head and Timmy does not.
No sheep were harmed during the making of this project. The Timmy doll is made entirely with synthetic yarns.

So, let's get started.

Knit Teddy Bear Tutorial

Equipment:

1 set 4mm double pointed needles (called sock needles in Hebrew)
About 1/3 ball of yarn (33 grams)
Some black yarn for the eyes and nose
Tapestry needle
A ribbon for the neck.
Polyfil (or other) stuffing

Abbreviations:

K: knit
Kfb: knit front back: knit in the front of the stitch, and another in the back of the stitch to increase.
K2tog: knit 2 together
[…] instructions inside the [..] should be repeated as many times as specified.

Baby Ball Beginners Project - Tutorial (Crochet)

I used worsted weight yarn and 4mm crochet hook, but really - gauge is not important for this project. Just make sure the stitches are tight enough so that the stuffing doesn't show through.
You can change colors at any point to make an interesting pattern.

You can learn basic stitches here.

abbreviations:
ch - chain
sc - single crochet
st - stitch
idec - invisible decrease. Instructions for this can be found here.