Chibigurumi

Hello my fellow crochet fanatics! Today I want to introduce my first custom designed amigurumi. When I say custom designed amigurumi I mean to say that all my previous projects have been copied from a theme or picture, for example Winnie the Pooh, Looney Tunes or copying a picture of someone’s amigurumi that I’ve seen online. With this latest project of mine I took to pen and paper to design and plan what I wanted the end result to look like.

I have been asked where I got the idea of making a Chibi doll and I really wish that I had an exciting, “it came to me in a crazy dream” lightning bolt moment to amaze you with. It’s not an exciting story, rather just your run of the mill brainstorming session. After the successful turnout of my Winnie the Pooh amigurumi dolls I really wanted my next crochet project design to be something that was completely mine and not derived from someone else’s idea. My mind was already made up that I wanted to design my own dress up doll and seeing that chibi figures are my current obsession I thought that I would start from there. I’m not even sure why but there is just something about those little big headed figures that I love so much – the little body, that big head, those big eyes and the tiny mouth – cuteness overload! Next I had to decide what my chibi was going to wear. My son’s current obsession is Pokemon. It has actually been his obsession for a while now and his favourite Pokemon is Pikachu. So with that in mind It just made sense to make a Pikachu onesie.

The body shape was kept simple and I decided to get a little bit more creative when it came to the head. Though the head seems simple enough I found it the hardest because I was trying to get the cheeks and mouth to protrude, whilst at the same time not allowing the back of the head to become flat – like it did in my first two attempts! 😀 (I can laugh now but at the time it was so frustrating). The result was a doll base that I just adore. Before I even finished my doll I was so excited about the endless possibilities for outfits and themes. In fact, I was so excited that I started to make the clothes before I started on the hair and face.

I decided to keep it simple and ended up using t-shirt transfer paper and some scraps of white canvas fabric for the eyes and mouth. The hair and details such as eyebrows and eyelashes were done with black/brown double-knit yarn and blush was applied to the cheeks (I also used a black sharpie to define the mouth and top of the eyes).

The first outfit instalment is a Pikachu onesie. The onesie was also fairly straight-forward and the most complicated part was the tail because it’s the most technical part of the whole pattern. The clothes are best made with acrylic yarn so that it has a little stretch which makes it easier to dress and undress your chibi. My son loves all things Pokemon and keeps asking for one that’s a boy, so I will have to bring a male chibi into the equation. This should be fairly simple if I just adjust the waistline…I am already being overloaded with male Chibi ideas such as superheroes – or even villans…a Joker Chibi would be so cute. But now I am digressing again.

So, are you ready for the good news?… I worked tirelessly to create a PDF pattern for all of you who like me, needs this Chibi doll to be part of their amigurumi collection. The Chibi/Pikachu Onesie set are available in my Etsy store. Like I previously mentioned, I am uncontrollably excited about all the little outfits that I plan to make. I am working on writing up the Elmo onesie pattern and have a few outfits still in progress such as the cherub and pyjama set. As you can see I am finding it hard to focus on one thing at a time because halfway through one idea I have another idea! But I have decided to limit myself to one at a time after I complete my cherub and pyjama set.

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