Free Pattern: Small Christmas Elf
Last year I wrote patterns for Christmas elves, but they are quite detailed and take a bit of time to make. And since I know December is the busiest time for all crafters, I thought this year I would make a little elf doll that is smaller and simpler - perfect as a last minute present or if you need to work up a whole bunch.
They are not complicated to crochet, but do include some small details, which can be a bit fiddly to make. But if you have some patience and enjoy working on small details, it's right up your alley. Happy crocheting!
Size
17 cm (6 2/3") tall from head to toe, 24 cm (9 1/2") including the hat, with DK weight cotton and bamboo blend and a 2,50 mm crochet hook (US size 2/C).
Tip! You can use the same pattern to make larger or smaller toys by using finer or bulkier yarn. Pick a crochet hook at least a size smaller than suggested on the yarn label and crochet tightly enough to achieve a tight gauge that will not allow the stuffing to show through the fabric. You may also need to adjust the size of the safety eyes.
Skills required
• Crocheting in spiral
• Magic ring
• Single crochet stitch (double crochet stitch in UK and Australia)
• Increasing
• Decreasing
• Finishing an open piece
• Finishing a flat piece
• Joining pieces
You will need
• Yarn. I used DK weight cotton and bamboo blend, 50g =100m (50g =109yd) / 8 ply / 11 wpi / 3: light. You will need about 10 g of beige, 22 g of red and 2-3 g of white yarn.
• 2,50 - 3,50 mm crochet hook (US hook size 2/C - 4/E) or according to the yarn.
• Polyester fiberfill, wool, wadding etc. for stuffing.
• 6 mm safety eyes or buttons, beads, felt etc.
• Yarn needle, scissors, stitch marker.
Abbreviations
mr, sc n = magic ring – crochet n single crochet stitches into the adjustable loop.
sc = single crochet stitch (double crochet stitch in UK and Australia).
sc n = crochet n single crochet stitches, one in each stitch.
inc = increase – crochet two single crochet stitches in the same stitch.
inc3 = double increase – crochet three single crochet stitches in the same stitch.
dec = decrease – crochet two stitches together using the invisible decrease method.
(sc 4, inc) x n = repeat the pattern between parentheses n times.
(sc 4, inc) x 6 = [36] = number of stitches in a round after finishing round.
Notes
• Work in a continuous spiral, do not join rounds or turn your work, unless instructed otherwise in the pattern.
• Use a stitch marker or a piece of yarn to mark the end or the beginning of a round. Move the marker up after completing each round.
• All stitches are worked into both loops, unless instructed otherwise in the pattern.
Head
With beige yarn:
1: mr, sc 6 = [6]
2: inc x 6 = [12]
3: (sc, inc) x 6 = [18]
4: (inc, sc 2) x 6 = [24]
5: (sc 3, inc) x 6 = [30]
6: sc, inc, (sc 4, inc) x 5, sc 3 = [36]
7-13: sc in each stitch = [36]
14: sc, dec, (sc 4, dec) x 5, sc 3 = [30]
Attach safety eyes between rows 11 and 12, leaving 7 stitches (count 6 holes) between them.
15: (sc 3, dec) x 6 = [24]
Start stuffing the head. Keep adding a bit of fiberfill after every few rounds, stuffing the head firmly.
16: (dec, sc 2) x 6 = [18]
17: (sc, dec) x 6 = [12]
Cut the yarn, leaving a long yarn tail for sewing, and fasten off. Finish stuffing the head.
Body
With red yarn:
1: mr, sc 6 = [6]
2: inc x 6 = [12]
3: (sc, inc) x 6 = [18]
4: (inc, sc 2) x 6 = [24]
5-8: sc in each stitch = [24]
9: (sc 6, dec) x 3 = [21]
10: sc in each stitch = [21]
11: sc 2, dec, (sc 5, dec) x 2, sc 3 = [18]
Start stuffing the body. Keep adding a bit of fiberfill after every few rounds, stuffing the body firmly.
12: sc in each stitch = [18]
13: (sc 4, dec) x 3 = [15]
14: sc in each stitch = [15]
15: sc, dec, sc 3, dec, sc 3, switch to beige yarn, dec, sc 2 = [12]
16: sc in each stitch = [12]
Cut the yarn, leaving a long yarn tail for sewing, and fasten off. Finish stuffing the body.
Turn the body so the end of the round is at the center of the back and sew the head to the body.
Add a bit more stuffing before closing the seam.
Embroider a little snowflake to the front of the body. Single crochet stitches are square so you could also do a little cross stitch pattern, if you want.
Arms (make 2)
With beige yarn:
1: mr, sc 6 = [6]
2: (inc, sc) x 3 = [9]
3: sc in each stitch = [9]
4: (sc, dec) x 3 = [6]
Stuff the hands firmly. Keep adding a bit of fiberfill after every few rounds, stuffing the arms lightly about 2/3 way up.
5-6: sc in each stitch = [6]
With red yarn:
7-12: sc in each stitch = [6]
13: sc 3, flatten and sc through both layers.
Cut the yarn, leaving a long yarn tail for sewing, and fasten off.
Sew the arms to the sides of the body one row below the head.
Legs (make 2)
With red yarn:
1: mr, sc 6 = [6]
2: (sc, inc3 x 2) x 2 = [14]
Crochet round 3 in back loops only!
3-4: sc in each stitch = [14]
5: dec x 4, sc 6 = [10]
6: dec x 2, sc 6 = [8]
Stuff the boots firmly. Keep adding a bit of fiberfill after every few rounds, stuffing the legs lightly.
7: sc in each stitch = [8]
With beige yarn:
8: sc, dec, sc 5 = [7]
9-17: sc in each stitch = [7]
18: (sc, dec) x 2, sc = [5]
Cut the yarn, leaving a long yarn tail for sewing, and fasten off. Finish stuffing the legs.
Sew the legs to the body just above round 3 and a bit more to the front of the body.
Cut a piece of yarn for the shoelace. Embroider a few cross stitches.
Tie the yarn ends in a bow. Make knots in the yarn ends to keep them from fraying and cut off the extra yarn.
Hat
With red yarn:
1: mr, sc 6 = [6]
2: (sc, inc) x 3 = [9]
3: sc in each stitch = [9]
4: (inc, sc 2) x 3 = [12]
5: sc in each stitch = [12]
6: (sc 3, inc) x 3 = [15]
7: sc in each stitch = [15]
8: sc, inc, (sc 4, inc) x 2, sc 3 = [18]
9: sc in each stitch = [18]
10: (sc 5, inc) x 3 = [21]
11: sc in each stitch = [21]
12: sc 2, inc, (sc 6, inc) x 2, sc 4 = [24]
13: (sc 7, inc) x 3 = [27]
14: (inc, sc 2) x 9 = [36]
15: sc in each stitch = [36]
16: (sc 3, inc) x 9 = [45]
Before you continue crocheting the hat, try it on. If it looks like it's going to be too big, take a look here.
17-21: sc in each stitch = [45]
22: sc 3, dec, sc 33, dec, sc 3, dec = [42]
Make a little yarn pom-pom and sew it to the tip of the hat.
Sew the hat to the head with back stitch.
And done! Weave in all yarn tails or fasten them with a knot and hide inside the pieces.
I would love to see how your elves turn out. Post a photo to my Facebook page or leave a comment below.
Copyright © 2015 TÜ Spire. All rights reserved.
Please do not post this pattern to your website or blog, instead post a link to http://engsidrun.spire.ee/blogs/blog1.php/free-pattern-small-christmas-elf. You MAY use this pattern as a teaching aid in any free class or e-course, or as part of a free crochet pattern, provided you credit me as the designer (Kristi Tullus, http://sidrun.spire.ee).
Feel free to sell items made with this pattern. I would appreciate a credit and a link to my blog (Kristi Tullus, http://sidrun.spire.ee).
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33 comments
How AWESOME - Thank you my Grandbabies will absolutely love these ……
Wishing you and your Family a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year……
Thanks Kristi!
I love testing your patterns and am looking forward to working this little one up too :)
Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. Looking forward to what you come up with for patterns in 2016!
i-hook
Adorable Elves! Thank you so much for sharing them with us. Happy Holidays!
At this point: Legs (make 2)
With red yarn:
1: mr, sc 6 = [6]
2: (sc, inc3 x 2) x 2 = [14]
Crochet round 3 in back loops only!
I understand crocheting in the back loops, but what does “crochet round 3″ mean?
I believe it to mean that on the 3rd row you would crochet in the back row for this row only. Hope this helps. It defines the foot more. It is a fun, fast pattern.
Thank you for these adorable elves. I have made some dolls similar to these and my grand daughters love them. Great detailed pictures too. Merry Christmas
Hi Christy,
Yes, that means you crochet in the back loops only on the next round (or row), 3: sc in each stitch = [14] and then continue in both loops as usual.
Kristi
Thanks so much for the pattern, they are so cute and I can see my grandbabies loving these. Have yourself a Merry Christmas
Thanks for making this pattern so easy (even though I’m pretty good at crocheting) I needed a last minute gift for my great grandmother and this worked out perfectly.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw on Pinterest that this sweet elf was a free pattern. Bless your heart for sharing it and how adorable! Thank you so much {:
Your elves are totally adorable… I can hardly wait for Christmas again! Thank you for sharing your pattern!
Hello kristy !
So cute!
I love your Christmas elves!
Thank you for share.
Kiss
Hello Kristi, thank you for this adorable elf pattern. I am making it now and just have a few questions to ask please …
1. With the head opening, it has 6 stitches and the body opening has 12 stitches - your link to sew the head and body together ( 2 open pieces together) mentions that both pieces should have the same number of stitches but these two pieces don’t ?? I ended up taking off the last round of stitches on the head so they had the same. I plan to make another one so wanted to check it with you before starting.
2. With sewing the open leg to the closed body did you use the whipstitch method or the blanket stitch please? It is hard to tell in the photo and they kind of look like they have been attached flat like the arms.
I am new to amigurumi and still learning the techniques.
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Thank you again. Fiona :-)
Hi Fiona,
I’m so sorry, there was a mistake in the head pattern, it should end with round 17.
The legs are not attached flat, the tops are actually round. I used the mattress or blanket stitch, I think it looks nicer, but both will work.
Kind regards,
Kristi
Thank you so much for your reply Kristi, I noticed you have amended the head pattern and I meant mattress stitch - silly me, I don’t why I typed blanket stitch lol. I’ll give it a try.
Thank you again.
Kind Regards, Fiona
Como puedo cambiar al español las instrucciones?
this is the first little people pattern I want to try. Thank you for the free pattern.
adorable, the perfect little present I was looking for! thank you for sharing =)
A few of you said your elves’ hats turned out too big? Here’s how to fix it.
How the hat fits will depend on how firmly you stuffed the head. I like to stuff my amigurumi quite firmly and the hat fit nice and snugly. So, the simplest fix is just to add a bit more stuffing to the head. But if the hat is still too big or you don’t want to do it, you’ll need to modify the pattern a little.
1) Finish the first 16 rounds and try on the hat. If it looks like it’s going to be too big, frog the 16th round and do fewer increases, dividing them evenly around the hat.
For example, if it looks like you have 4 stitches too many, you will need to do 5 increases instead of 9 as the pattern says.
How to divide them evenly you ask? Take a look at the number of stitches you have after finishing the previous round, in this case 36. Then divide this number by the number of increases you want to make, 36/5=7.2. This means you will do an increase in every 7th stitch, and then sc in each stitch left over. So the pattern would be: (sc 6, inc) x 5, sc [41]
2) Then finish rounds 17-21 following the pattern, you’ll just have fewer stitches than the pattern says. You can skip a round or two, if it looks like the hat will be too long.
3) And then on the last round, instead of doing … sc 33 …, you’ll have to do fewer stitches there as well.
I hope it makes sense :)
Thank you so much for this beautiful pattern,I loved it,made it and turned out so perct,no problem at all with anything.just perfect and lovely,so cute and beautiful.
Posted at http://www.alunamistejidos.com/2016/12/christmas-elf-duende-navideno.html
Thank you so much and Happy Holidays!
These look lovely, and the tutorial is great. I’m looking forward to do a couple of these for my Granddaughter (aged 18 months).
Thank you.
I love making this pattern. My only problem is that I never seem to get the shoe laces right.
Any suggestions please?
Kind regards
Ellis
Thank you so much for your cute christmaspresent for a lot of crochetfans! I think a lot of elfs will be born thanks to you!! Merry Christmas and happy Newyear
Hi Thelma,
When working in rounds, there will always be a seam where the round ends: http://www.msweaver.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Picture-3-of-M11.jpg
There are techniques to make it less noticeable, but the easiest way to get an even seamless fabric when making toys is to just crochet in spiral: http://engsidrun.spire.ee/blogs/media/blogs/a/tutorials/crocheting_in_spiral/IMGP6586.JPG
Kristi
Hallo.
Ik kom niet uit toer nr
2.
Ik begrijp niet hoe ik aan 14 steken moet komen
Graag hulp
Bvd
Hi,
Round 2 includes double increases - inc3 - where you crochet three single crochet stitches in one stitch. So, crochet one sc in first stitch (sc), then three sc-s in each of the next two stitches (in3 x 2), repeat once more from the beginning: one sc in next stitch (sc), then three sc-s in each of the next two stitches (in3 x 2). And now you should have 14 stitches - 1 + 3 x 2 + 1 + 3 x 2 = 14.
Kristi
Hello, i can’t for the life of me get the shoe laces threaded right, can you please send me a little diagram to my email of how to do it. Thank you so much. love your little elf.
Hi Susan,
I will put together a little tutorial on Saturday.
Kristi
Hi! I love this pattern. Just made an elf and will post it on my blog today. Thank you for this pattern!
Best wishes, Annemarie
Hi, I love it. It’s very well made pattern… Thank you very much. Greetings from the Czech Republic!
