How to Stuff Amigurumi
By A Guest Writer – 14 CommentsA Guest Post by Renske de Busschere.
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.
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Stuff the feet more firmly then the legs, to ensure you get a nice shape.
If you have too much filling in, just pull out what you don’t need.
When you have the filling in, start ‘moulding’ the doll’s parts, it’s amazing what you can do to the shape of your doll.
Now your doll part is finished!
The last tip: Have fun making your amigurumi!
Renske de Busschere is obsessed with amigurumi and vampires, and has mixed the two together successfully! She began designing about a month ago and has opened up her own Etsy shop. To lean more about Renske, visit her blog Fun and Fang.
Great tips! I never thought to use the stuffing from an old cushion.
thanks for the tutorial!
I always did pieces of stuffing. Time to do it the better way! Thanks for sharing the tips.
I can’t wait to read what you write about next!
Great tips. Thanks! Does anyone know where one can purchase colored stuffing? There used to be a site, but they have shut down.
I use ‘hemostats’ for stuffing all soft sculpter… here’s what it looks like
http://z.about.com/d/dentistry/1/0/O/6/hemostats.jpg
works great too for turning tiny parts…you can get straight or curved
@Bethintx1, according to this site, you can dye your fiberfill using commerical Ritt dyes. If you choose cotton fiberfill, you can get deep colors: http://www.cherrycapri.com/things_projects.php
@Rachel, I use old pillow stuffing too! 🙂 It’s eco- and wallet-friendlier. I also save all my scraps of yarn and other fiber (fleece, thread, etc. from various craft projects) and use those to stuff things that I sow (but not things that I crochet, as I think those pieces would be more likely to come out).
You can also stuff old nylons and then sow/tie them shut and stuff your projects w/ that, if you can manage to still keep a good shape/size. This keeps all the stuffing in.
Hi , I,m interrested in this doll but what does she look like and where do I find a pattern? Thanks Love the site
Hi Dianna, this tutorial is made to show you how to stuff any amigurumi doll. If you are interested in the one used in this tutorial, you can visit the link at the end of the post to see more of Renske’s work and patterns.
This was so helpful. Thank you so much!
Thank you for this great information.
I just started a project that says to use weighted beads to make the amigurumi monkey sit by itself.
I started to look for this item- the weighted beads, but I don’t know what it would be called.
What should I look for ? Thank you.
Hi Rose, try searching for stuffing pellets or poly pellets.
Great tips Thank you.I use dryer lint for stuffing and a chopstick to stuff it,
I am currently working on a teddy bear that matches a baby blanket I just finished for my new baby nephew who is expected to arrive shortly (yay! a boy! I have 13 nieces, 0 nephews). For stuffing, I’m using some odd pieces of quilt batting that’s too small or odd shaped to use in a quilt. I just pull on the pieces of batting and they fall right apart into stuffing.