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Time for the August Stuffie of the Month!  This month I am featuring a crocheted stuffie pattern!  Princess Aurora by Ohana Craft.

Since I actually started crocheting stuffed animals before I was sewing them, I thought reviewing a crochet stuffie pattern (also know as Amigurumi) would be a great addition to my stuffie of the month series.  Since making a series of Star Wars amigurumi for my nephews, blogged here (a long time ago), I wanted to start a crocheted doll collection for my daughter.  Of course it had to be princesses!

I searched Etsy and Raverly for princess crochet patterns and there are plenty out there – but I really fell in love with the designs by Ohana Craft.  They are really adorable!  Just look at that face!  Let’s look at all the cute details on this princess.

Let’s start with the boots!  I like how the design of these princesses aren’t totally typical (like Aurora is wearing boots) vs. store bought dolls, etc.  I did learn a new stitch with the boots – the top of the boot has a raised row that is actually a backwards single crochet.  A little tricky to get down, but a cool effect!

You can’t see it (because a lady never shows her undergarments) but her legs were actually crocheted together.  I am familiar with this technique but haven’t done it a lot.  It makes it nice to have 2 less pieces to sew on!  I love little skirts on ami and this one is really cute!

The back view of Princess Aurora shows off her curls!  I think they turned out great!  The pattern actually gives instructions for making the hair by doing a very fancy stitch – something she calls a “Strap Single Crochet”.  She had a step by step photo tutorial for the stitch but I just couldn’t get it – and really didn’t have the time (or patience) to figure it out.  So I went with a regular single crochet down a chain.  Crocheting into one loop on the chain made the yarn twist like a curl, so it still worked!

Pretty cute curls!

The crown has a stitch in it that I definitely need some more practice with – the Picot – I am sure I will be making a few more princesses so I will be able to get in some practice.

Side view of Princess Aurora.

As I was taking pictures of Aurora, Miss O brought down Princess Tiana, another Ohana Craft pattern that I made her for Christmas last year, to join the photo shoot.  Cute friends!

Miss O loves her Amigurumi Princesses!  Now to find time to crochet her a few more princess friends!

To recap my thoughts on this pattern:

• Cute finished stuffie (CHECK).
• Crochet is not the quickest way to create a stuffed animal (unless you do it all the time and crochet fast (I do not)), but the construction was typical of amigurumi – head, body, legs, arms, etc.  (CHECK).
• Pattern layout easy to read (Half-CHECK).  Yes the pattern was layed out like a typical crochet pattern with a key for acronyms, etc.  But I felt like some steps were either out of order or missing – like I don’t remember her telling me to stuff the legs (ok maybe I missed it).
• Special stitches explained (CHECK).  She includes step by step pictures as well which is nice.
• Overall I can’t say the pattern was the best written crochet pattern I have seen, but being an experience Ami crocheter I got through it.  However I wouldn’t recommend these patterns for a beginner.  You will need to have read quite a few crochet patterns before tackling this one since there are some holes (steps that are in all amigurumi patterns (like stuffing the toy) that you have to figure out.

Things I learned:

• A few new stitches — backwards single crochet and strap single crochet (even though I couldn’t figure it out).
• Amigurumi is still my favorite thing to crochet!

Thanks for checking out my August Stuffie of the Month!  Up next month I am going back to the sewing machine and am going to try out a pattern from Sweetbriar Sisters.

I am going to make Dalton the Dragon for my son’s birthday!  His sister even picked out all of the fabric for the project!  Hope I can get it done in time!!