Hand Embroidery: a Personal Touch to Amigurumi

What makes every crocheted toy (amigurumi) look unique? Even if they are made of the same yarn, with the same gauge and by the same pattern… I believe, their faces make them look so different. Especially if they are hand embroidered.

Every small detail matters: the size of the nose and eyes, the distance between the eyes and between the eyes and nose. I like ready safety eyes and noses a lot. And I use them quite often. They offer a very quick way to finish your crocheted bunny or a bear. They can be plastic or glass, transparent and colored.

But in my opinion they also have a few disadvantages:

• sometimes you don’t have a needed size (and then you have to go to the store and buy them, or order through internet),
• they are often difficult to install,
• …and toys with safety eyes are not suitable for small kids!

For me it is much fun to embroider toy’s faces. When I am doing this, I feel like I am giving them life, and personality. I’ve crocheted many bunnies and bears already, and I’ve written a pattern for my Magnus bear. I included a photo-tutorial on embroidery in it, and also decided to make a separate post on how to embroider a crocheted bear’s face.

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What you’ll need: embroider thread (you can also use yarn) and a needle (I prefer embroidery needle).

I used a wool embroidery thread of black color. Take 2 strands and make a knot. My bears’ head was crocheted in continuous spiral with a magic ring at the beginning, which is also a nose part. Insert the needle through the hole of the magic ring and emerge diagonally after 2nd rnd above the nose, pull the thread so that a knot disappears inside the nose.

Repeat making stitches until you cover 3 stitches of the 2nd rnd.

When you are happy with the shape of the nose, insert the needle through the hole of magic ring again and to the bottom of the stitch where you want to embroider bear’s left eye. I really like the bears’ faces with small eyes which are closely situated. And for me the best is when each eye is as large as one single crochet stitch.

Embroider left eye with short stitches.

Then move your needle to the top of another eye. Usually both eyes are situated on one round. And I prefer the distance between the eyes to be small (for example, three single crochet stitches).

After the second eye is finished, insert the needle in its bottom and through the hole of magic ring (bottom of the nose). Then follow the pictures to embroider bear’s mouth with short stitches.

You can of course make a bigger or smaller nose and eyes, and every your bear will look different and unique!

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