For those of you wondering “When is the Baby Yoda crochet tutorial coming out?” The answer is “NEVER!” I die a little inside every time I have to make a Star Wars related craft. I absolutely hate Star Wars, but every now and then I put my personal feelings aside to fulfill a popular request. This time it’s Baby Yoda. Instead of trying to drag myself kicking and screaming through a crochet tutorial a-la Porg, I went with a much quicker and simpler needle felting project.
I love needle felting, especially making needle felting tutorials. Unlike crochet, there’s no counting, or concentration required, just shapes and STABBING! The instructions can also be very simple too: make a ball, divide it in half etc. Now that Studio Crafti is my full time job, you can expect many more needle felting tutorials as well as loads of other crafts because, as my website says, I’m creative AF!
Also, I would like to take this opportunity to make another confession: I’m a nail biter. I’ve tried every trick in the book to stop, but I just can’t. Maybe I don’t want it badly enough. Why am I telling you this? Because my nails in this video are in their natural state. No gel, no acrylics just pure, unadulterated stubs. I’m still trying to located a good nail salon, but as any of you nail biters out there know, going to a new nail salon is a stressful event because you know you’re going to have to sit through ANOTHER nail biting lecture. Add on top of that the fact that I’m not in Japan, the land of perfectionism, and that makes for a near panic inducing spa day.
Alright, let’s get this done!
Materials
- Felting wool in the following colors
- Lime Green
- Light Brown
- Medium Brown
- Grey-Brown
- and a little bit of Pink
- Felting needle, plus backup incase it breaks
- Felting Pad
- Scissors
Procedure
Step 1: Make a Long Ball of Green Wool
The first step is to turn your green wool into a long ball (also known as an ellipsoid, fun fact!). Take a portion of green wool about the length of your forearm. Roll it into a log and poke it with your felting needle to secure it in place. Don’t stab it too hard or the needle will break. No using this as an opportunity to take out your frustration, gentle pokes only.
Poke all the way around the ball to secure all of the wool. Pull the ends of the log up and over to one side so the ends look clean.
One side is going to look very ugly while the other side looks very nice. Don’t worry, it will all come together. I feel like everything we make looks terrible and quickly comes together at the end. It’s like cooking, it doesn’t start to look appetizing until it’s nearly done. Baby Yoda will be the same.
Step 2: Turn the Ball into a Peanut
Turn the ball into a peanut shape by first poking around the center of the ball to form a division between Baby Yoda’s head and body. Then gradually move out from the center line, poking more lightly as you get farther from the center. You goal is to create a gradual slope between the neck and head / body. Don’t worry if it’s not the prettiest thing, just make it look as close to a peanut as you can. A peanut with two nuts, not one of those weird ones that’s got three nuts in it, lol it’s late while I’m writing this.
Step 3: Narrow the Upper Half of the Head
Narrow the sides of the top half of the head by lightly poking until you have a somewhat fat egg shape. It will look weird at first, but it will even out once we put on the ears.
IMPORTANT! Only narrow the sides of the upper half of the head, near where we’ll put the ears, not the front and back of the head.
Step 4: Build Up the Cheeks
Gradually build up the cheeks by adding more green wool. Baby Yoda has VERY chubby cheeks.
Take a small portion of green wool, roll it into a little ball, and attach it to the lower side of the head, slightly towards the front. This should be just below the section that was narrowed in Step 3. You can repeat this step as many times as you need until you reach your desired level of chubbiness.
Step 5: Create the Facial Features
Poke the wool to create a slightly diagonal vertical line on the inner side of each cheek to represent the line were his cheeks end and his mouth begins (also known as nasal labial folds, more fun facts!).
Next, poke the wool to create a horizontal line between the nasal labial folds. This will be the beginning of his mouth (Figure 5).
Poke the area below the mouth line to create and indentation where his chin and lower lip should be. Our goal here is to make his upper lip stick out over his lower lip (ya know, like a baby’s mouth) (Figure 6).
Once the lower lip is indented, take a small amount of green wool and twist it into a short string. Attach that string to form his lower lip in the indentation just below the upper lip (Figure 7).
If you think the chin looks too small, or is non-existent, you can take a bit of green wool and attach it to form his chin, similar to how we did the cheeks.
To make the eyes, push your thumbs into the wool, Game of Thrones style, just above the cheeks. Then poke the indentations with your needle to create two holes where the eyes will go (Figure 8). Fill the eye sockets with medium brown wool and poke it to secure the eyes in place (Figure 9).
Step 6: Create the Ears
Take a small amount of green wool, about the length of the palm of your hand. Fold it in half. Poke the ends of the wool into a point to form the tip of the ear (Figure 10).
Spread the wool at the fold so the entire piece resembles a teardrop shape, with one pointy end and one wide/round end.
Poke the wool to form a flat teardrop shaped sheet of felt (Figure 10).
Add a small amount of pink wool towards the wider end to create the coloring inside Baby Yoda’s ear (Figure 11).
Fold over the top of the ear about half way to create the upper ear fold (Figure 12). When you do this, pay special attention to the fold on each ear to ensure you get a left ear and a right ear instead of two left ears, or two right ears.
To attach the ears to the head, cut a small vertical slit in the side of the head where you want the ear to go. Place the ear onto the slit and poke with your needle to secure the ear in place. Once you think it’s secure, give it a tug to make sure it doesn’t come loose (Figure 13).
Step 7: Make the Cloak
Take a portion of grey-brown wool about the size of your hand.
Flatten it out on your felting pad and poke it until it’s a flat sheet of felt (Figure 14).
Measure it against the body by wrapping it around his neck. It should be too long (Figure 15).
Cut off any excess length and set it aside (this will be used to make the collar later). His cloak should be just slightly longer than his body. Just enough to cover the green wool (Figure 16).
Secure the cloak to his body by poking it into his neck crease and all the way down the front where it closes. Don’t poke all over, just in the neck crease and the closure, or else it won’t look like a cloak (Figure 17).
Take a small strip of light brown wool and secure it to the front of his cloak to form the boarder on the closure (Figure 18).
Step 8: Create the Collar
Create the collar using the excess grey-brown felt you made for the cloak.
If the edge where it was cut is fraying, clean it up a bit by poking it with your needle.
Take a portion of light brown yarn and twist it to form a string. Attach the light brown wool string to the edge of the grey-brown strip. Do this for all of the edges to create the boarder for the collar (Figure 19).
Measure the collar against the body by wrapping it around Baby Yoda’s neck. If it’s too long, you can cut off the excess. Make sure the end you cut is the end that will be hidden when it’s attached to the body (Figure 20).
Attach the collar to the top of the cloak, slightly overlapping his chin and cheeks. Secure it in place by poking all the way around along the upper and lower boarders. Avoid poking in the neck crease as it will create and unnecessary line that we don’t want (Figure 21).
You’re done!
Once the collar is attached, you can roll it around in your hands a bit to even everything out, and then you’re all done!
How did you do? Did you end up with a cute little baby Yoda, or something that looks like it grew on a potato that you forgot about in the back of your pantry for 11 months? Let me know in the comments!
Also, if you liked this tutorial and found it useful, please consider donating through PayPal, or supporting me on Patreon. Every bit helps buy the supplies to make more crafty tutorials!
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