Applique – the turtoise
Story:

We made this appliques while ago, may be 1 year ago. We crocheted whale, turtoise, mermaid, jellyfish, fish, crab, seahorse and much much more fun to make appliques. We designed a blanket too. The biggest problem for us is making high quality photos because we don’t have a space in our house for this and always was afraid to post patterns with bad quality. But after 1 year we just decide that it is better to share our work with you and you have the choice to decide is it worth to crochet them or not. So we decide to start our undersea applique series because we see that so many people are crocheting this kind of blankets and they will need new inspirations for them. The first post is our turtoise applique pattern. I hope you will like and enjoy crocheting it as much as we do 🙂 If you want you can buy the pattern with lots of photos which will guide throught out the pattern for unexpensive price here:
Yarn:
The yarn which we used to make this applique is DK weight yarn- in our case it is Stylecraft Special DK and Paintbox Simply DK. This yarn is unique, soft and perfect for so many projects. All undersea appliques came out well, but instead of using Stylecraft Special DK I think you must use 100% cotton or cotton/acrylic yarn which is much more suitable for the appliques.
Pattern:
MATERIALS:
- DK weight yarn- I used Stylecraft Special DK and Paintbox Simply DK in these colors- 2 different shades of green, yellow, brown, very small amount of blue for polka dots.
- 5mm crochet hook size – US crochet hook size – E
- 6 or 8 mm safety eyes
- tapestry needle, scissors
- small amount of black string for expression of face(eyebrows, lips)
ABBREVIATION:
sc- single crochet stitch dc- double crochet stitch
hdc- half double crochet stitch ch(s)- chain(s) st(s)- stitch(es) sl.st- slip stitch
inc- increase= 2 sc stitches in 1 stitch rep- repeat MC- main color
** – repeat the stitches in the ** indicated times
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- The pattern is written in US crochet
- When the number of stitches is written:
- before the stitch – 3 dc – make 3 dc in next stitch
- after the stitch – sc 3 – make sc in each of next 3 sts
- Number in () after each row/round indicated the total stitches you should have when you finish your row/round.
- You can use safety eyes or crochet eyes, depends on your
Head and body of turtoise:
Rnd 1: Start with magic ring and make 6 sc into it (6)
Rnd 2: inc in each st around (12)
Rnd 3: * sc 1, inc 1 *rep 6 times (18)
Rnd 4: sc 1, inc 1, * sc 2, inc 1 *rep 5 times, sc 1 (24)
Rnd 5: * sc 3, inc 1 *rep 6 times (30) Rnd 6: sc in each st around (30) Fasten off.
Insert eyes in 3rd rnd. Leave 2 or 3 sts between eyes. Use black string and make mouth.Use dark green string and make small lines/dots on upper part of the face.
Shell:
Row 1: Ch 8, sc in 2nd ch from hook, hdc in next st, dc in next 3 sts, hdc in next st, 3 sc in last st, continue on opposite side, hdc in next st, dc in next 3 sts, hdc in next st, 2 sc in last st, join with sl.st on top of 1st st.
Row 2: ch 1, 2 sc in base of initial ch-1, sc in next 5 sts, 2 sc in each of next 3 sts, sc in next 5 sts, 2 sc in each of next 2 sts, join with sl.st on top of 1st st.
Row 3: ch 1, sc in base of initial ch-1, 2 sc in next st, sc in next 5 sts, * sc 1, 2 sc in next st *rep 3 times, sc in next 5 sts, * sc 1, 2 sc in next st *rep 2 times, join with sl.st on top of 1st st.
Row 4: ch 1, * sc in next 13 sts, 2 sc in next st *rep 2 times, join with sl.st on top of 1st st.
Switch to yellow color
Row 5: ch 1, sc in next 2 sts, hdc in next st, * 2 dc in next st, dc 1 in next st *rep 3 times, dc in next st, hdc in next st, sc in next 3 sts, ch 1, turn
Row 6: skip 1 st, sc in next st, sc in next 2 sts, hdc in next 9 sts, sc in next 2 sts, skip 1 st, sl.st in last st. Fasten off.
Shell brown line:
Ch 19, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next ch, hdc in next 14 chs, sc in next 2 chs. Fasten off.
Tail:
Ch 5, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next ch, hdc in next 2 chs. Fasten off.
Fins- make 3 – 1 pcs for neck and 2 as fins
Ch 10, dc in 3rd ch from hook, dc in next ch, 2 dc in next ch, dc in next ch, hdc in next 2 chs, sc in next 2 chs. Fasten off.
Polka dots:
Big dot- Start with magic ring and make 6 sc into it, join with sl.st in 1st st. Fasten off.
Small dot– Ch 2, 4 sc in 2nd ch from hook, join with sl.st in 1st st. Fasten off.
Assembly all the pieces together:
- Sew brown line on the shell. Sew it on the yellow and green joining
- Sew polka dots on upper part of
- Sew tail on back, under
- Sew fins on yellow part of
- Sew 1 of the fins as neck to join head and
- Sew head on
Here it is , your lovely turtoise applique is done…. Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog, so you will be notified when the others undersea appliques are live here 🙂 We will be happy to see some pics of your work which you can share on Instagram with #passionatecrafterr or on our Facebook page.
Here are some pics of our other undersea appliques which will be live soon on the blog…

Your appliqués are beautiful and so clearly written. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise.