You know when I posted about making Pusheen, I mentioned that I made him as practice for a bigger crocheted thing which was a present for someone? Well, the larger thing was a Minion (from Despicable Me) for my mum, and here he is:

I used the brilliant pattern from All About Ami. She also has a post giving more detail in how to make all of the parts of the minion, in case you get stuck (like I did!).

I started the crochet for this in February and made the body fairly quickly – you just have to go round and round and round until it’s the right size, with some increasing at the first end and some decreasing at the second end, adding in the hair before you seal it up.

The thing that takes a lot longer is all the other little bits, like on the dungarees.

I had to make the dungarees 3 times as my tension changed so they came out way too small. Twice. Then there’s the little square pocket, the 2 side pockets and the straps. The you have 2 arms, 2 thumbs, 6 fingers (though I didn’t make the fingers as I feared they would be too big and overtake the hand) and 2 feet. Then there’s the goggles.

I made the goggles slightly wrong, partly because I didn’t understand the instructions and partly because I ran out of time. We had a family gathering in May for my nephew’s second birthday, and I tried to get the minion finished for then so that I could give him to my mum in person. I didn’t quite make it, but I think having that deadline helped as once I’ve missed the deadline of her actual birthday (in March), I felt like I could really take my time! The rest of the face was pretty quick to make and didn’t cost anything as I have quite a stash of felt now after making my Sarah and Duck cushion for my nephew and the felt allotment from my honorary niece.

 

The goggle strap was easy – I’m not sure if you’re meant to sew it on or if the goggles are supposed to be removable, but since I’d done the front of the goggles wrong and they kept collapsing in on themselves, I didn’t think they would keep their shape if they were removable, so I sewed it all onto the head.

I don’t think I have too much else to say about the construction as it’s all really well covered in Ami’s blog post, so instead I took a couple of silly photos.

Here’s the minion looking for Despicable Me in my DVD collection (don’t tell him it’s not there!).

And here he is in bed with my childhood teddy, Cutie. They’re best friends. My original plan was to make 2 minions (the tall one with 2 eyes and the shorter, fatter one with 1 eye) but making 1 took so long that I nipped that in the bud pretty early on. But I did enjoy making him, so maybe one day he’ll get a sidekick!