5 Little Monsters: March Bear of the Month: Little Leprechaun Bear
▼

March Bear of the Month: Little Leprechaun Bear

      -This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.- 


Today is March 1st, and that means it is time for another bear. This is the 3rd bear in the Bear of the Month Crochet Along and the March Bear was actually inspired by a bear I made a few years ago. I didn't want to repeat that bear exactly, just in a smaller size so I changed it up a little bit.  But without further ado, this month's bear is...


The Little Leprechaun Bear! I knew I wanted to make a St. Patrick's themed bear for March so my plan had been to make a smaller version of the Leprechaun Bear I made a few years ago. I started making some holiday bears years ago and over time I made a Pumpkin Bear, a Santa Bear, a Graduation Bear, and a Leprechaun Bear. Then last year I decided to do the Bewitching Bears Crochet Along at Halloween time and made 6 different Halloween Bears, one of them being a smaller version of the pumpkin bear that I had made previously. I didn't feel bad making a duplicate because it was a different size and it was one of 6 bears so having one that was similar wasn't a big deal.  


When I decided to do the Bears of the Month Crochet Along and make monthly bears in the same smaller size as the Bewitching Bears I had every intention of making March's bear just a smaller version of the earlier Leprechaun Bear. But then when it came time to actually make it I felt like that was really boring and I wanted to do something to switch it up. I think part of it is that I always felt like the Leprechaun Bear needed a little something more, but I wasn't sure what to add. 


I ended up deciding to keep the hat and bow tie that the original had, although the patterns are slightly different. But in addition to that I gave the Little Leprechaun Bear a little vest. I wanted to give him more clothes and a vest seemed to be the easiest way to add clothes and still fit the Leprechaun vibe. If you prefer the look of the original with only the hat and bow tie you could leave the vest off, but I think it adds some extra cuteness.  


Like the other bears in this series you can use any medium/worsted weight yarn for your bear. This month  all of the yarns I used for my bear were Red Heart Super Saver. I really wanted to use an orangey-brown color for my bear this time, since leprechauns often have red hair. I ended up using the color Sienna for my bear. I made the whole bear the same color like I did with the January Bear, sometimes I make the muzzle a different color like I did with the February Bear. You can do either, if you want to use another color for the muzzle then you will need an additional color. I chose not to with this bear because using the orangier color I didn't feel like the lighter colors I had matched the tone, so I just made it all one color. Then for the green you will need 2 shades, you could go with brighter greens like the Paddy Green and Spring Green I used for the gnome I recently shared the pattern for, but for this one I chose to go with more muted greens, I used a darker green- Medium Thyme, for the hat and vest, and a lighter sage type green- Frosty Green, for the bow tie.  In addition to the greens and the bear color I used black for the hat band, and a tiny bit of yellow to make the buckle on the hat band and the buttons on the vest. 


We are now a quarter of the way through the year. Come back in another month to see what the April Bear of the Month will be. 




How to Crochet a Little Leprechaun Bear


Finished Size: about 6" tall sitting + hat

You will need:



Instructions:


The body and head are made in one piece, the other pieces are made separately and sewn on. Most pieces are made beginning with a magic ring (mr), the beginning of each piece will indicate if it starts with a magic ring or a chain. The vest is worked in one piece, the back and one front section, then you will rejoin the yarn at the shoulder to make the second front section, fold at the shoulders and stitch the sides together. 


Body/Head

Make 1 with brown/bear color yarn, beginning with a magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Round 5: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (30 sc)
Rounds 6-12: 1 sc in each st (30 sc)
Round 13:  [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Rounds 14-15: 1 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 16: sc2tog, repeat around (12 sc)

Begin stuffing body, next round begins the head portion 

Round 17: 2 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 18: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (30 sc)
Round 19: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (36 sc)
Rounds 20-25: 1 sc in each st (36 sc)
Round 26: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (30 sc)

Insert eyes between rounds 23 and 24, about 5-6 stitches apart, begin stuffing head and continue to stuff as needed as you finish closing up the head

Round 27: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Round 28: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 29: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (12 sc)
Round 30: sc2tog, repeat around (6 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn, use tail to weave around opening to close, weave in end

Muzzle

Make 1 with Brown/Bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: [3 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2] repeat (10 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in each of the next 3 sts, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat (16 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in first 2 sts, 2 sc in each of next 2 sts, 1 sc in next 6 sts, 2 sc in each of next 2 sts, 1 sc in next 4 sts (20 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in each st (20 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing

Add safety nose to the muzzle, and you can at this point use embroidery floss to embroider a mouth if desired but I chose not to, if you do just make a line coming down from the nose and then branching off to each side.

Sew the muzzle to the face just below the eyes, adding stuffing behind it 

Ears

Make 2 with brown/bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3] repeat around (15 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing

Flatten the ears into a semicircle shape and sew to the head

Arms

Make 2 with brown/bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (15 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)
Round 6: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3] repeat around (12 sc)
Rounds 7-11: 1 sc in each st (12 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing

Add a little bit of stuffing to the end (hand area) of the arm

Sew the arms to the sides of the body

Legs

Make 2 with brown/bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in each st (18 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in each st (18 sc)
Round 6: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (15 sc)
Rounds 7-11: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing

Add a little bit of stuffing to the end (foot area) of the leg

Sew the legs to the bottom of the body in a sitting position

Vest

Make 1 in darker green, beginning with ch 

ch 17
Row 1: 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook and each ch to the end (16 sc)
Rows 2-4: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each st  (16 dc)
Row 5: ch 1, turn, sc2tog, 1 sc in each of next 12 sts, sc2tog (14 sc)
Rows 6-7: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each st (14 sc)

You will now continue making the first front piece

Row 8: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each of first 3 sts (3 sc)
Rows 9-15: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each st (3 sc)
Row 16: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each of first 2 sts, 2 sc in last st (4 sc)
Row 17: ch 1, turn, 2 sc in first st, 1 sc in each st to end (5 sts)
Row 18: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each of first 4 sts, 2 sc in last st (6 sc)
Row 19: ch 1, turn, 2 sc in first st, 1 sc in each of next 4 sts, 2 sc in last st (8 sc)
Row 20: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each of first 7 sts, 2 sc in last st (9 sc)
Rows 21-23: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each st (9 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn, leaving long tail for sewing

To make the next front section you will repeat the section above but mirrored, in order to keep the right and wrong sides the same when matching up the sections in the front you will reattach your yarn and start working in the 3rd stitch from the end of row 7

Row 1: start in the 3rd stitch from the end of the previous row 7, working in the same direction as the previous row 8, 1 sc in each of the last 3 stitches of that row (3 sc)
Rows 2-8: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each st (3 sc)
Row 9: ch 1, turn, 2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts (4 sc)
Row 10: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each of first 3 sts, 2 sc in last st (5 sc)
Row 11: ch 1, turn, 2 sc in first st, 1 sc in each st to end (6 sc)
Row 12: ch 1, turn, 2 sc in first st, 1 sc in each of next 4 sts, 2 sc in last st (8 sc)
Row 13: ch 1, turn, 2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 7 sts (9 sc)
Row 14-16: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each st (9 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn, leaving long tail for sewing

Fold the front sections over, lining up bottom edges and stitch the front and back together matching up the last 4 rows. I just butted the edges against each other and whip stitched in those 4 stitches (rows 1-4 on the back matched up with rows 20-23/13-16 on the front)

Put the vest on the bear and pull the front of the vest so that it overlaps slightly and stitch in place. I used the green tail from the vest to do this, then use the yellow yarn (or whatever color you want your "buttons" to be) and stitch a couple of tiny buttons on the front of the vest. 

Bow Tie

Make 1 of each piece in light green, beginning with magic ring for bow and chain for center

Bow

Round 1: in mr, ch 3, 2 tr, ch 3, sl st in mr, ch 3, 2 tr, ch 3, sl st in mr 

pull to tighten to mr, finish off and cut yarn

Center

ch 5
Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook and each ch to the end (4 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving long tail

Wrap the center around the middle of the bow and secure at the back

Sew the bow tie to the neck

Hat

Make 1 in darker green, beginning with a magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in blo of each st (24 sc)
Rounds 6-8: 1 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 9: work all sts in this round in flo, [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (30 sc)
Round 10: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (36 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for weaving in end

Add stuffing to the hat and stitch on top of the bears head between the ears

Hat Band

Make 1 with black yarn, beginning with a ch

ch 26
Row 1: turn, sc in 2nd ch from hook and each ch to the end (25 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a tail for sewing

Wrap the hat band around the hat and stitch the ends together and stitch in place on the hat (I like to make the ends meet in the back so the seam is less noticeable)

Use yellow yarn to stitch a little square over the front of the hatband to make a buckle



at

No comments :

Post a Comment