#FASTEN. Cuddly Gengar Amigurumi Pattern

Hiya friends! Sorry for my disappearance! Moving into a new place + work = busier times than I expected! With life being all hectic and all, I haven't been patterning or writing as often as I'd like. HOWEVER!!! With school out until the second (ish) week of January, expect to see more of me around!

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on the project you see above: my first attempt at using a super chunky yarn!! I also had my first go at cutting out felt shapes and hand-sewing them onto my work... and boy, I learned a LOT!

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you're working with sheet felt:

1. Sheet felt is fragile!

If you pick up basic sheet felt from the craft store (like Michael's, for example), chances are it's going to be rather thin and fragile. This means that you'll have to pay extra attention to the edges of your shapes. To keep them from fraying or tearing, avoid needle felting near or on the edges of your work. You'll also want to leave a good amount of space between your stitches and the edge when sewing your felt onto your amigurumi. Take it from me... I had to redo Gengar's entire mouth after tearing the felt in two separate areas!

2. Sheet felt can be a pain to cut!

Thinner sheet felt can be floppy, meaning that even if you are laying a stencil on top of your felt, it may shift and therefore affect the shape of our cut-out product. There are two ways to greatly improve the accuracy of your cutting! First, get a nice, sharp pair of craft scissors/fabric shears because you are gonna need them! Second, tape the stencils that you've traced directly onto your felt. This will keep the stencil (and felt) in place!

3. Pin down your work well!

Sheet felt is can be rather floppy, which means it can shift around fairly easily as you're sewing. This can result in "air pockets" or asymmetrical work. Add a good amount of sewing pins to help keep your felt piece in place. Try to use thinner sewing pins if possible to prevent piercing visible extra holes into your work.

Oh! Just one more thing: save your felt!! Instead of using trial and error and cutting out shapes of various sizes on your sheet felt, create stencils using paper! You can pin your stencils onto your amigurumi to preview your final product. This way, you can be sure that the felt shapes you cut out will be perfect! Feelin a little intimidated with creating your own stencils? Don't worry: I've added stencils for Gengar's eyes and mouth in my pattern!

Ready to make your own?! Let's do this!! This big guy is lots of fun to hug and he will come together quicker than you think. Go ahead and click the link below to download the pattern! I can't wait to see all of your finished Gengar projects!!

Click here to download the pattern for free!

Pattern writing and updating the blog are both hobbies of mine that I really enjoy! As such, I want to continue doing it as a hobby and sharing my work for free! If you really enjoy my work and wish to support me, please consider supporting me on ko-fi. :) 

Happy holidays, happy crocheting and stay safe everyone,

Cindy.