All About Ami
a blog about my love of ami-gurumi & crochet
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As you know, when I was pregnant I went on a crochet spree, trying to crochet as many cute items for our baby as I possibly could! I knew we would be doing a newborn photoshoot, so I tried to crochet some special props for it (including this cute stork pouch). While looking up crochet ideas for newborn shoots, I came across this adorable turtle outfit as well as this sweet ladybug outfit. I wanted to make Myla a little outfit too, so we decided to go with a panda bear!
I had already made some owl hats using Sarah’s pattern on “Repeat Crafter Me”- I loved how the seam was hidden and how she had hat patterns for newborns all the way to adults! And so, I followed her newborn pattern to make my panda hat. I used Martha Stewart Crafts Extra Soft Wool Blend in “Bakery Boxy White” to crochet the hat and some black yarn for the braided tails.
Next, I crocheted the ears using black yarn and Ryan cut these oval shapes out of black felt for the eyes.
We sewed the black ovals onto the white hat and then sewed these black buttons onto the black ovals. Ryan then stitched on this sweet little nose consisting of an upside down triangle and an upside down “Y” (see my “Amigurumi Nose Tutorial” HERE for detailed instructions).
Here are some more views of the face…
I think this panda has such an adorable, tender face :)
Then it was time to attach the ears…
We looked for these specific buttons that had a smooth surface on one side and could be attached with little loops on the other side. Typical buttons with holes in the center could work too but we wanted to go for this smooth look as they kind of look like amigurumi safety eyes! We ended up buying these buttons in both black and white from Fabricland as we wanted to see how both would look for our panda hat!
I followed this pattern to make a matching diaper cover! It’s a great pattern as it consists of double crochets and the flaps on the sides can be attached onto the black button at various points, depending on how big your baby is, making it adjustable! We used this diaper cover in Myla’s birth announcement HERE and I hinted how it was part of a special animal set that I had crocheted. Haha, five months later we’re finally revealing that it’s a panda set!
I made a black pom-pom using this tutorial HERE and added it to the diaper cover. I did not secure it with a knot (I just tied the loose ends into a bow) so that the this pom-pom tail was easily removable.
Here is our finished Panda set: an adorable panda earflap hat with a diaper cover!
Here it is again with the diaper cover flipped so that you can see the cute black pom-pom tail!
I was incredibly excited to see Myla wear this little outfit! The hat was actually a little small for her, but the diaper cover fit well. It’s hard knowing how big to make your hats since you never know how big your baby’s head will be! We tried to get a cute sleeping shot but our little girl woke up, haha… And so, we made the most of it by taking some shots while she was awake! Doesn’t she look so adorable with her little tail and hat and her expression? You can see her neck was already quite strong as she could lift her head up at less than a week old! Myla was probably thinking, “Mom and Dad….how dare you disturb my slumber? And why am I dressed like a panda? Where are my clothes?!?”
We tried again another day, but this time with just the hat, making it easier…here you can see the face of the panda better! Doesn’t Myla look so sweet?
We made a bigger panda hat for our friends who were expecting a baby boy, this time using the white eyes! You can see how using the black or white buttons gives the hat a different look :)
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Here are the patterns for the small and big panda hats:
Materials:
- Black and white yarn
- 5 mm crochet hook
- Black felt
- Black or white buttons (for eyes and diaper cover)
- Black embroidery floss
- Yarn needle
HEAD
Using white yarn, follow Sarah’s pattern to crochet the earflap hat with black braided tails. Follow the newborn pattern HERE for the smaller panda hat and the 3-6 month pattern for the bigger panda hat HERE. I know many of you are interested in making this panda hat in an ADULT size too! Sarah offers these earflap hats from toddler to child to adult sizes as well, so check them out HERE!
EARS (make 2)
Smaller hat:
R1: 6 sc in Magic Ring (6 sts)
R2: 2 sc in each sc around (12 sts)
R3-6: Sc 12
Fasten off and leave long end for sewing. Sew open end together. Sew ontop of white hat.
Bigger hat:
R1: 6 sc in Magic Ring (6 sts)
R2: 2 sc in each sc around (12 sts)
R3: *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (18 sts)
R4-7: Sc 18
Fasten off and leave long end for sewing. Sew open end together. Sew ontop of white hat.
*** To make bigger ears, try increasing by intervals of 6 [e.g. R4: *Sc 2, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (24 sts)]. If you need help figuring out how to keep increasing by 6, follow the pattern for Sweetheart Bunny’s head HERE.
Adding details:
- Cut oval shapes out of black felt. Sew onto white hat.
- Sew buttons towards top part of black ovals.
- Embroider nose (upside down triangle and upside down “Y”) with black embroidery floss (refer to my “Amigurumi Nose Tutorial” HERE).
DIAPER COVER WITH TAIL
Using white yarn, follow this pattern HERE to crochet the diaper cover using a black button for closure.
Make a pom pom with black yarn following this tutorial HERE and add to the diaper cover.
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Sarah of Repeat Crafter Me is the queen of cute hats, and she offers so many free patterns! Check them all out HERE. If you like my baby panda set, here are some other sets that Sarah has made, including this Mickey & Minnie Mouse set! Some of you guessed that I was making a bunny set since Spring officially started this week- you can check out Sarah’s Bunny set here!
I’m so glad we have Myla’s newborn photos to look back upon as time is flying by so quickly. Myla turned 5 months old this week! Here I am with our sweet, precious little strawberry :)
Hope you like this little baby panda set we made! They’d make a great gift for a baby boy or a baby girl, and you could even adapt this set to make different animals, like a koala bear too! Who is going to try making an adult panda hat? I’d love to see your pics! Connect with me through e-mail (all_about_ami@hotmail.com), Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@AllAboutAmi). If you absolutely love pandas, you could also try making our amigurumi Panda since his face looks very similar to this hat :) You can get the free pattern HERE. Happy crocheting, everyone!
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It’s time for a GIVEAWAY since it’s been a year since I hosted my last one! While in Tokyo, I picked up some very kawaii items for myself and bought some extra so I could give them away to my loyal and supportive readers! There are three prizes:
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(1) A Sheep Felt Mascot Kit (love his adorable expression!)
(2) A Teddy Bear Measuring Tape (press his nose so the tape retracts; metric-system only)
(3) A Bunny Wool Felt Kit (the little smile and striped body are so sweet!)
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There are 5 ways to enter (I will randomly choose three of the following groups, one winner from each):
(1) Blog comments: Leave a comment on this blog post, suggesting cute amigurumi pairs/sets (e.g. milk and cookies). One comment per person please (if you comment more than once I will just count one of your comments :D).
(2) Tumblr: “Like” this post. Reblog this post for an additional entry (only once please). For an additional entry, reply to this post and suggest a cute amigurumi pair/set. Winner must be a follower on tumblr.
(3) Facebook: Leave a comment on the giveaway photo on my facebook page here, suggesting a cute amigurumi pair/set. Like and Share the photo for additional entries. Winner must be a fan of the All About Ami Facebook page.
(4) Twitter: Reply to the giveaway tweet here, suggesting a cute amigurumi pair/set. Retweet the giveaway tweet for an additional entry. Winner must be a follower on twitter.
(5) Instagram (allaboutami): Comment on the giveaway photo, suggesting a cute amigurumi pair/set. Like the photo for an additional entry. Winner must be a follower on instagram.
You may enter all five ways! If you are under 18, please ask your parents’ permission before entering. The contest is open worldwide and will run until Sunday, August 5 at 11 PM, MST. Winners will be announced on Monday, August 6! Thank you for supporting my blog, everyone :D Can’t wait to hear your wonderful ideas and ship these goodies around the world!](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7zhmyB8ue1qg61s6o1_500.jpg)
[CLOSED]
It’s time for a GIVEAWAY since it’s been a year since I hosted my last one! While in Tokyo, I picked up some very kawaii items for myself and bought some extra so I could give them away to my loyal and supportive readers! There are three prizes:
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(1) A Sheep Felt Mascot Kit (love his adorable expression!)
(2) A Teddy Bear Measuring Tape (press his nose so the tape retracts; metric-system only)
(3) A Bunny Wool Felt Kit (the little smile and striped body are so sweet!)
**********
There are 5 ways to enter (I will randomly choose three of the following groups, one winner from each):
(1) Blog comments: Leave a comment on this blog post, suggesting cute amigurumi pairs/sets (e.g. milk and cookies). One comment per person please (if you comment more than once I will just count one of your comments :D).
(2) Tumblr: “Like” this post. Reblog this post for an additional entry (only once please). For an additional entry, reply to this post and suggest a cute amigurumi pair/set. Winner must be a follower on tumblr.
(3) Facebook: Leave a comment on the giveaway photo on my facebook page here, suggesting a cute amigurumi pair/set. Like and Share the photo for additional entries. Winner must be a fan of the All About Ami Facebook page.
(4) Twitter: Reply to the giveaway tweet here, suggesting a cute amigurumi pair/set. Retweet the giveaway tweet for an additional entry. Winner must be a follower on twitter.
(5) Instagram (allaboutami): Comment on the giveaway photo, suggesting a cute amigurumi pair/set. Like the photo for an additional entry. Winner must be a follower on instagram.
You may enter all five ways! If you are under 18, please ask your parents’ permission before entering. The contest is open worldwide and will run until Sunday, August 5 at 11 PM, MST. Winners will be announced on Monday, August 6! Thank you for supporting my blog, everyone :D Can’t wait to hear your wonderful ideas and ship these goodies around the world!
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I can’t believe it’s been a year since my brother graduated from high school already! Our family had a great time attending his commencement and grad, and he’s had a wonderful first year of university. I made him this little ”Graduation Teddy” to help him commemorate this special time in his life, complete with a diploma, mortarboard and tassel matching his school colours. Since graduation season is upon us once again, some others have used my free pattern to make sweet Graduation Teddies for their friends too!
Makayla of Illinois made this teddy for her cousin who is graduating! I love the purple she used, and she did an absolutely fantastic job with the diploma, mortarboard, and yellow and red tassel. I’m sure her cousin loved this special, personalized gift! What a cutie!
Emily was new to crochet, so she watched some videos and learned how to read crochet patterns as she attempted her own Graduation Teddy. She did a wonderful job, particularly since this is her first amigurumi project! I love the light, airy colours she chose, and I think she did a superb job stitching the nose. Emily wanted to include the year on her hat, so she used glue! Way to go, Emily :)
Nicollette of Louisiana found my pattern and made this bright orange Graduation Teddy for her sister-in-law! I love how everyone uses such different colours for their teddies :) She stitched on the year as well!
Maria of Indiana made this Graduation Teddy in a similar blue colour that I used! He looks very dashing with his white and blue tassel! She also did a fabulous job stitching “2012” on the hat as it is very bold and thick- the year really stands out!
Mandy made this Graduation Teddy using a yarn called “Oatmeal”- she decided to name her teddy “Oatmeal” too! What a cute name :) He has a lot of texture with this variegated yarn, and he looks very proud to be graduating!
Mandy had a great idea of also making a Graduation Cupcake Bear! She said that this project went by really fast, and she added polly pellets to the cupcake liner to give it some weight. This is such a great idea as not having to crochet the body and limbs and attach them together will save a lot of time! And as Mandy says, there are so many fun and fabulous cupcake liners out there to really make this project unique!
Fadilah of Rojak made this bright green Graduation Teddy and even added a little bit of felt to the neck as his graduation robe! That’s such a cute idea :)
Fadilah didn’t make just one teddy! Her friend asked her to make one for her boyfriend, so she made this purple one for him and a green teddy keychain for her! I love how Fadilah wrapped up the purple teddy so beautifully and even had the teddy holding a lovely bouquet of flowers! I’m sure her friends were very touched when they received these special gifts.
Since Fadilah had many friends graduating, she made many Graduation Teddy keychains in a vast array of colours! Similar to Mandy’s idea, this is a great way to save time when you have a lot of gifts to make. It must’ve been fun handing out these special bears to her friends with their adorable sideways graduation caps :)
I love seeing how other people’s creations turn out using my patterns as well as how they modify them. If you have a special grad in your life, do check out my free Graduation Teddy pattern as well as the step-by-step photos to personalize a special teddy for them! Thanks for sharing your pictures and stories with me, everyone! Congrats to all the new grads of 2012!
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Hey everyone! It’s been a long time since my last Crochet Corner post, but I thought it’d be another great opportunity to highlight YOUR work based on my patterns since Valentine’s Day was this week! Valentine Teddy still remains very popular, and I absolutely love seeing photos of your teddies since everybody has a different take on him (see my first Crochet Corner post on Valentine Teddy here). Here is my fuzzy cutie in case you haven’t seen him before:
I love how Ziale of Florence, Italy gave her teddy red pants to match his red bow! Her Valentine Teddy looks very suave and ready to go out on the town, doesn’t he? What a great idea! A matching girl teddy wearing a red dress and a red bow on her ear would be perfect!
Emilee of California gave this sweetie to her Mom for Valentine’s Day, and she tells me that her Mom absolutely loved it! Who wouldn’t? Emilee even used the same yarn that I did, which is why they look so similar! She didn’t have a dog slicker brush, so she fluffed up her little guy with a brush they use for their cats! This is only Emilee’s second amigurumi project and fourth crochet project ever. She did such a great job! Beginners can do absolutely beautiful work :) I would’ve guessed Emilee had years of experience by looking at her Valentine Teddy!
Shannen of Sweet N’ Cute Creations is another amigurumi artist who I’ve become friends with since since starting my blog (we’re both on tumblr!). She is a sweet girl who is only 16 years old- she is definitely inspiring the younger generation! Shannen provides many cute free patterns on her blog here, and is very prolific as she’s done many many amigurumi projects! Here’s a big-eyed teddy that she made using my pattern :) Keep up all your great work, Shannen!
Julie of One Little Red Fox made a grey Valentine Teddy with a snazzy gingham bow. What a great idea to use a different colour! Julie says that she loves to crochet since she finds it easy and because it helps her with her insomnia. Crochet certainly helps pass the time away…
Lastly, Malarie from California was looking for a gift for her boyfriend, so she decided to give my pattern a try even though she was new to amigurumi. Malarie loves to crochet, but her carpal tunnel hinders her from crocheting all the time. And so, she spread out her crocheting over time and was very happy with the results. Her boyfriend absolutely loved him! You did a wonderful job, Malarie, and I love the little buttons you added. Thank you for sharing your story with us! Keep on crocheting with all your love and patience!
If you’re interested in making your own Valentine Teddy, check out my free pattern here! It’s neat to think that these Valentine Teddies are being made and loved all over the world :) Thank you so much to everyone who’s taken the time to send me photos! I still have more photos to share, so if you didn’t see your work yet, it’ll probably be featured in the coming weeks! Happy crocheting :)
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This was our first year setting up our Christmas tree in our new house. We bought our tree last year at Walmart after Christmas when all the prices were heavily reduced, so we had to wait almost one whole year before we could set it up! As we assembled our tree and placed the lights and ornaments upon the branches, Ryan and I thought how it’d be so adorable if we could somehow incorporate our love of amigurumi onto our tree. I had been wanting to make some sort of Christmas-themed amigurumi, so we came up with the perfect solution: make amigurumi ornaments! Our tree had round ball ornaments, so we thought of making round teddies- you all know how much I love my teddies! To play up the Winter/Christmas theme, we talked about adding colourful scarves to show these teddies all bundled up!
Ryan did a preliminary sketch of our design. I thought it was so cute how the scarf was positioned so high up! We ended up omitting the arms since we thought they looked cuter without :)
I had ALWAYS been wanting to crochet a panda bear, so now was our chance! I absolutely melted when Ryan sketched this little guy up!
And so we began! I worked on crocheting a very round ball first starting with white, then switching to black, and then switching back to white.
Ryan used his phenomenal attention to detail to help add the safety eyes by first placing them through oval pieces of black felt, and then stitching the nose and mouth. Who could resist such a sweet face? We then stuffed him up to give his full roundness :)
Next I worked on the scarf. I started with a green row of half double crochets, a white row of single crochets, and then another green row of half double crochets. These striped scarves add a nice pop of colour to the teddies!
I added some fringe to the ends of these scarves. You can watch a video on how to do this here or follow this series of pictures below:
I added five strands of fringe on each side, alternating between green and white. I then trimmed the strands to my desired length.
Then we wrapped the scarf around our panda, overlapping the ends and making sure it was positioned very close to his eyes, nose and mouth (adding to the snuggliness look)! You can either sew or glue the scarf on. It’s nice that the scarf covers the transition from the white to black yarn of the body.
I crocheted some ears and then sewed them onto his head. We added the ears after the scarf to make the positioning easier.
Next we got ready to attach him to our tree! We used this black cord and ornament hooks to do so…
We used a needle to thread the black cord through…
And tied a knot on the top.
We then hid the knot within the panda’s stuffing. With this loop, he’s now ready to be attached to the tree with the ornament hook! Of course, you could also attach these ornaments simply by looping some yarn through their heads or making a loop with a series of chain stitches.
Here are some step-by-step photos of the brown teddy. I really like the colour of his scarf: it’s called “Aquifer”.
And here is the Koala ornament! Ryan used white felt around his eyes, black felt for his nose, and also gave him a tiny smile. Once again, I LOVE his scarf because pink is my favourite colour :) Pink and grey make such a great colour combo!
Did any of you notice any differences in the quality of the sneak peek photos? Up till now, I’ve been using my point and shoot camera to take photos for my blog. But recently, Ryan and I got a digital SLR camera! Ryan has taken a keen interest in photography and has been learning how to use it over these past few days, soaking up information like a sponge. I have no doubts that he’ll be a great photographer as he is very creative and has a great eye. He’ll have to teach me how to use it too!
Now, may I present to you these beautiful photos that Ryan graciously helped me take :) First up, we have Panda!
Next is Brown Teddy!
And lastly we have Koala! Koala has slightly bigger and more curved ears than the other two…
Here are my three teddy ornaments together! I love their different facial expressions and their colourful scarves together!
The actual ornaments from our tree are in the background. Don’t you love the roundness of all these ornaments?
The overlapping scarf and fringe gives the side a cute look :)
This is one of my favourite shots. I always try to take pictures of me holding my amigurumi so you can see the relative size. I’m obsessed with this gold nail polish at the moment because it’s perfect for the Christmas season with its beautiful shimmeriness!
And now to finally hang our amigurumi teddy ornaments!
Using the black cord and ornament hooks adds a more discrete way of hanging them as the focus is more on the ornaments themselves (the cord and hook blend in).
They all stand out so nicely against our white tree!
Last week I tweeted a picture showing our very first Christmas tree, and now you can see it with our special additions! Don’t the blue, silver and white ornaments + our new amigurumi teddies look stunning on our tree?
They all look so cute together! Maybe we’ll have a new Christmas tradition where we design some new amigurumi ornaments every year :) Then we’ll eventually have a fully “amigurumi-fied” tree! How cute would that be?
I hope you all like these teddy ornaments we designed and created! They’re relatively quick to make since you only have to attach ears and a scarf (no arms, legs or tails). I wanted to post them in early December so you would all have enough time to make them for your own Christmas trees! These crocheted ornaments would certainly add a splash of cuteness and craftiness to any tree. They’d make pretty cute stocking stuffers as well! ***The free pattern can be found HERE!***
I had to end off with a photo of me wearing a colourful scarf with these three cuties :) Thanks for reading and for your wonderful response so far to these teddies! Leave a comment below and let me know who your favourite teddy is and whether you’ll be making any for your own tree! We love reading each and every single comment :)
[Update: People have been sending me photos of their own teddy ornaments, and I’ve compiled them all in a Crochet Corner post! Check out everyone’s own rendition of my teddy ornaments here.]
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