berrysprite: berry tutorial

I feel like making strawberries can make your day a little brighter, so here is a very quick tutorial for crochet amigurumi strawberries!

They are super cute and easy to make, they use up only little bits of polyfil, yarn and sequins so they are very economical gifts :) You could use them as decorations, tie them to gift bags, make them into keychains, and use them in your amigurumi. They are super easy and fast too; you only need to know how to single stitch!

Supplies:
10 ft (~3.05 m) of yarn; it’s really not that much
7-10 sequins or more, depending on how many seeds you want
1.25x1.25” (~3.5 cm) square of felt
Small wad of polyfil

Optional:
Jumprings and embroidery thread for a keychain attachment
Small strip of felt for a stem
Coil-less safety pin

Tools:
Crochet needle (G or F; my preference is F)
Needle and thread
Glue gun
Scissors

Starting Crochet:

See these websites for great tutorials on basic crochet techniques; to start all of my amigurumi I use the magic ring formation here, but you can also:

1.) Crochet 2 sc, then crochet 6 sc in the second stitch from the needle. * use this for 1.) in pattern.*

Here is the pattern, x is a single stitch, XX is two single stitches in one single stitch, and V means decrease.

1.) x x x x x x (6 single stitches)
2.) XX XX XX XX XX XX (12 single stitches)
3.) x XX x XX x XX x XX x XX x XX (18 single stitches)
4.) x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x (18 stitches)
5.) x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x (18 stitches)

6.) - ????) x V x V x V x V x V x V

I just keep decreasing this way until it is closed. Don’t forget to put in the polyfil before it is all the way closed; pull the thread you began your work with through the inside of the strawberry with your crochet needle so it doesn’t show. Use your crochet needle to poke in the polyfil if it’s difficult. When you’ve close the berry up, pull the finishing yarn into your berry so it doesn’t show, and cut it off if it pokes through.

For the Leaves:

1.) Cut out a circle from the felt (it doesn’t have to be nice)
2.) Snip little triangles out of the felt so you have something that looks like a flower.
3.) snip the corners off the rectangular “petals” of flower, and shape them so they look nice.

Assembly:
You can use hot glue or a needle and thread, depending on the purpose of the berry ( ie., I sew on the sequins and jumprings if it is for a keychain) I’ll explain gluing:

1.) If you want a keychain: For the keychain, thread the knotted embroidery thread through your berry, making sure the knot disappears into the berry and the thread itself is secure. The end of the needle and thread should come out on the top part of the berry, where the leaves will go. Thread the needle through the center of the leaves, and use a ring of hot glue on the leaf top to glue them to the strawberry. Sew the jumprings onto the leaf top, securely knot and pull through the berry. Trim the thread.

3.) If you want a regular berry: Glue the leaf top to the bad side of the berry (the bad side is the finishing side, the good side is where you started the crochet.) Glue on the stem by putting a small bead of glue on the leaf top and pressing the flat stem down onto the leaf

4.)1.) Glue on the sequins, spacing them evenly if desired. It is less messy and easier to do them one at a time; I glue the sequin on flat side facing out to the world.