Sea Turtle Amigurumi – Free Crochet Pattern

I have always loved sea turtles, but while vacationing in Maui this summer, we were lucky enough to see quite a few while swimming in the ocean and snorkeling. This is where the inspiration for this Sea Turtle Amigurumi came from!

Also, I learned that the Hawaiian green sea turtle (known as “Honu”) symbolizes good luck, endurance and long life. Another great reason to love sea turtles!

“HONU” THE SEA TURTLE

Measuring about 6.5 inches long from head to tail, this cute little Sea Turtle Amigurumi is a great size for cuddling and playing with, but is not too big to sit on a shelf as a decoration as well.  

There are so many possibilities with shell colors that you could make a whole family of turtles, each one looking unique! I hope you enjoy making this Sea Turtle Amigurumi as much as I did!

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Click the image below to PIN the Sea Turtle Amigurumi Crochet Pattern for later!

If you are loving everything ocean themed right now like I am, check out my other patterns inspired by the sea! You can find links to each of these free patterns in my Amigurumi Ocean Friends blog post. You can make a whole collection too by making the Sea Turtle Amigurumi and then making all of his friends!

Amigurumi Ocean Friends Collection

This Sea Turtle Amigurumi is worked up in pieces and then sewn together at the end. I started by making a 6 petal African flower hexagon. Next, I made the inner shell piece by stuffing and sewing together two circle shapes. I attached the legs, head, and tail to the inner shell pieces before sewing the African flower to the top as the outer shell.

This might sound a little confusing, but don’t be scared! All of the steps are explained below, so I hope you read on and enjoy making your own little Honu – the Sea Turtle Amigurumi!

This pattern is worked in rounds (continuous and joined) and each section is worked up separately and then sewn together at the end. Have fun!

The Sea Turtle Amigurumi crochet pattern is available for FREE on this website. If you’d like an ad-free, printable PDF version, you may purchase it for a small fee from my Etsy or Ravelry shops. You can purchase this individual pattern or a bundle of all of the ocean themed crochet patterns. Thank you so much for supporting Loops & Love Crochet!

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Materials:

• Worsted weight yarn – You can use any worsted-weight yarn for your Sea Turtle Amigurumi. I used a combination of Caron Simply Soft and Red Heart Soft. For the purple/pink turtle above, I used Caron Simply Soft in Iris, Watermelon, and Blue Mint for the shell. The green/blue turtle is made with Caron Simply Soft in Limelight and Blue Mint. For both turtles, I used Red Heart Soft in Wheat for the legs, head, and tail.
• 3.5mm (G) crochet hook. These are my favorite hooks!! Super nice on the hands and glide through the yarn!
• Poly-Fil/Stuffing
• 9mm safety eyes
• Yarn needle for sewing pieces together and weaving in ends. Bent yarn needles work great for attaching amigurumi pieces together, but you can use a straight one as well.

 Stitches Used:

• Ch – chain
• Sl St – slip stitch
• SC – single crochet
• DC – double crochet
• INV DEC – invisible single crochet decrease – insert hook into front loop of next stitch, then insert your hook into the front loop of the following stitch (3 loops on hook). Yarn over and draw through 2 loops (2 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through 2 remining loops on hook. There are many tutorials on this on YouTube. Check one out if you’d like to see the invisible decrease in action.
• Deep SC – deep single crochet – Work a deep single crochet just like a normal single crochet, except you will be inserting your hook one row down (into the previous row/round).

Important Notes:

• Magic Circle – Make a circle with your yarn, insert crochet hook into circle and draw up a loop. Chain one and then start making the stitches of round 1 into the ring. If you are unsure of how to make a magic circle, check out my Magic Circle Video Tutorial.
• Joined Rounds – The African Flower portion of this pattern is worked in joined rounds, which means that you will be joining the last stitch of the round to the first one with a slip stitch before continuing with the next round.
• Continuous Rounds – The inner and bottom shell pieces, head, legs, and tail are all worked up in continuous rounds, which means that you will not be joining the last stitch of the round with the first one. Instead you need to keep track of where each round started and how many stitches you have made because after each round you move right into the next one (with no join). It is useful to use a stitch marker (or a piece of yarn) to mark the start or end of each round to help you keep track.
• Color Changes – the only color changes in this pattern are in the African flower/outer shell piece. When it is time to change colors, work the last stitch of the previous color right up to when you do your last yarn over. Yarn over in the new color and pull through the loop. Your next stitch will be the first stitch in the new color. There are other ways to make color changes, but this way makes the color change more hidden. If this is confusing, you can look up many tutorials on YouTube to help show changing colors in action.

Making the African Flower Hexagon

This 6-petal flower hexagon is the top of the outer shell. If you’ve never made one of these, there are so many tutorials and YouTube videos you can check out. Below, I have written down instructions for what I did to make the African flower hexagon for the turtle shell.

When you are counting stitches, the chain at the start of each round counts towards the stitch count as one of the DC stitches in the round.

Round 1: Magic circle, chain 3, now work the following stitches inside the ring: DC, Ch 1, *2 DC, Ch 1*, repeat * * four more times. Join with a Sl St to top of the chain 3.  (18 stitches: 12 DC and 6 chain spaces)

Round 2: Join your next color with a slip stitch in the next stitch, then slip stitch in the ch 1 space from the previous round. Ch 3, DC, ch 1, 2 DC (all in the chain 1 space).  2 DC, ch 1, 2 DC in each chain 1 space around. Join to top of chain 3. (30 stitches – 24 DC and 6 chain spaces)

Round 3: Continue with the same color as round 2. Slip stitch across to chain 1 space from previous round. Slip stitch in the chain 1 space, chain 3, 6 DC in chain 1 space. Work 7 DC stitches into every other chain 1 space around. Change color and join to top of chain 3. (42 stitches)

Round 4: Chain 1, SC in same stitch as ch 1, SC in next 6 stitches, deep SC in next space (inserting your hook into the previous round). SC in next 7 stitches, deep SC in next stitch.* Repeat * * around. Change color and join with a Sl St in top of first SC stitch. (48 SC stitches, not including chain 1 at start of round).

**Notes about round 4 – chain 1 does not count towards stitch count in this round. Your deep single crochet stitches should be lining up between each of the “petals” of the flower.

Round 5: Work this round in back loops only. Chain 3, DC in next 2 stitches. *DC, Ch 1, DC in next stitch, then DC in next 7 stitches*. Repeat * * 4 more times. DC, Ch 1, DC in next stitch, DC in last 3 stitches. Join in the top of the first DC of the round. Fasten off, weave in ends.  (59 stitches – 53 DC and 6 chain spaces)

**Note about round 5 – the stitches with the DC, Ch 1, DC in them should line up with the middle of each “flower petal.” Each petal is 7 stitches long, so the middle of the petal would be the 4^th stitch in.

Put your flower/outer shell piece aside for now and continue on with making the inner shell pieces.

Inner Shell (make 2)

When I made my inner shell pieces, I chose a color that complemented the outer shell/flower piece. Only the bottom of the inner shell will be visible when the turtle is finished, so choose which color you’d like to see on the bottom of the turtle. For no real reason, I made my inner shell pieces two different colors, but again only the bottom will be visible so it won’t matter if you make them the same color or different.

Round 1: Magic circle, chain 1 and make 6 SC stitches into ring (6)

Round 2: 2 SC in each stitch around (12)

Round 3: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next, repeat around (18)

Round 4: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 2, repeat around (24)

Round 5: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 3, repeat around (30)

Round 6: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 4, repeat around (36)

Round 7: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 5, repeat around (42)

Round 8: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 6, repeat around (48)

Round 9: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 7, repeat around (54)

Round 10: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 8, repeat around (60)

Fasten off, weave in ends.

Front Legs (make 2)

Round 1: Magic circle, chain 1 and make 6 SC into ring (6)

Round 2: 2 SC in each stitch around (12)

Round 3: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next, repeat around (18)

Round 4: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 2, repeat around (24)

Round 5: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 3, repeat around (30)

Round 6: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 4, repeat around (36)

Fasten off, leaving a long tail.

Back Legs (make 2)

Round 1: Magic circle, chain 1 and make 6 SC into ring (6)

Round 2: 2 SC in each stitch around (12)

Round 3: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next, repeat around (18)

Round 4: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 2, repeat around (24)

Round 5: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next 3, repeat around (30)

Fasten off, leaving a long tail.

Form legs by folding circles in half and using a yarn needle to sew the edges together.  Make sure you sew around both of the outer loops of each side (through all 4 loops).  I used a whip stitch to create a nice-looking edge when finished.

Head

Round 1: Magic circle, chain 1 and make 6 SC into ring (6)

Round 2: 2 SC in each stitch around (12)

Round 3: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next, repeat around (18)

Rounds 4-9: SC in each stitch around (18)

Round 10: INV DEC, SC, repeat (12)

Round 11: INV DEC, SC, repeat (8)

Round 12: SC in each stitch around (8)

*Insert safety eyes between rows 5 and 6. I put mine 6 stitches apart.

Fasten off leaving a long tail. Stuff head and then sew closed using your yarn needle.

Tail

Round 1: Magic circle, chain 1 and make 4 SC into ring (4)

Round 2: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next, repeat around (6)

Rounds 3 and 4: SC in each stitch around (6)

Fasten off leaving a long tail. Sew closed.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now that you have made all the parts of the sea turtle, you need to attach it all together.

1) Create the inner shell by crocheting the two shell pieces together.

Lay one of the inner shell pieces on top of the other. Make sure you have the good sides facing out. If you made them in different colors, make sure the color you want on the bottom of the turtle is the one on the bottom.

Next, you are going crochet the two circle pieces together.  Use the same color you used for the outside of the flower/outer shell piece (round 5 of the flower pattern).

Join yarn through the top loop of the bottom circle and both loops of the top circle.  SC in each stitch around, make sure you are only working through the top loop of the bottom circle and both loops of the top circle. When you are about ¾ of the way around, stuff the shell, then finish crocheting around. Join to first SC with a slip stitch. Do not fasten off, leave connected to ball of yarn.  Put aside and work on legs, head, and tail.

2) Attach legs, head, and tail to the inner shell.

Use your yarn needle to sew the legs, head, and tail in the seam where the two shell pieces meet.  Try to keep the area where you are adding stitches inside the seam so that they are less visible and so you will still be able to crochet in the loops to attach the outer shell to the inner/bottom shell. Sew back and forth in each loop to attach limbs securely. Then weave in ends and hide inside shell.

3) Attach outer shell piece to top of shell.

Place outer shell/flower piece on top of the inner/bottom shell. Join yarn through both loops of flower/outer layer. Chain 1 and SC around shell working though all loops of both layers. When you work over where you have sewn the legs/head/tail, you can just go though the top loop if it’s too hard to get into both of the loops with the stitches from attaching limbs.  Join to first SC and fasten off, weave in ends.

You’re all finished!! I hope you enjoyed making this cute little Sea Tuirtle Amigurumi! Now you can have fun making more in all different color combinations!

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