Fun and Fang: April 2011

Last year I was a guest writer on crochet spot. I wrote a piece about stuffing your amigurumi. Today I realised I never added it to my blog. So even though it´s a year later, here it is!:

You just finished crocheting all parts of your amigurumi. So now you are ready to stuff them. This is a very important part of your work, because it determines what your finished doll will look like. I want to share some tips to help you get the best result.

First of all, stuffing actually begins before you even start with your amigurumi, by choosing the right crochet hook. You want to crochet as tight as possible, so the chance your filling will be showing through your crochet work is minimum. The tighter you crochet, the bigger hook you can use. For example, I am a very loose crocheter so I always choose a very small crochet hook.

Now back to your finished amigurumi parts. You have to use the right filling. Of course you can buy doll materials like fiberfill in your local shop but I like to use a more budget friendly version, filling from old cushions. I think it works great.

Try to stuff your amigurumi with one piece of filling, instead of adding a piece after piece. If you would add little pieces, your amigurumi would become very lumpy.

For a head or body, try to stuff as firmly as possible, but not overstretching it. You don’t want your filling to start showing through. For legs and arms, be gentle with stuffing, otherwise you could loose your shape.

When the opening of your arm or leg is very small, use something pointy to get the filling all the way down to hands or feet. I always use my scissors for this, but be careful, not to hurt yourself.