MarjorieCrochets's Journal

My baby dragon is finally finished. I've decided hat the little one is a girl, and she says her name is "Hope". Hope and I 'hope' you've found this tutorial helpful in designing and making your own baby dragons. Please remember that each dragon is different, and can easily be changed by adding extra spines, or sewing the body parts in different positions, as in my sleeping baby dragons, or by adding buttons or jewels, as in my Treasure Dragons. Please drop me a line if you have any other questions or comments. And enjoy your baby dragon always!

Finally, we're ready to pose our baby dragon. Sometimes I can tell right from the start what personality the little dragon has. This one seemed a bit sad to me, and I really don't want an unhappy baby dragon. I'm going to try several different poses to see if I can change it. I use straight pins to try the different poses. This one looks pensive to me. Not bad, but not what this baby is saying to me. This one looks like the poor thing has either a headache or tummyache: This pose isn't bad, but still not right for this dragon: I like THIS! She looks hopeful here. This is the pose I'm going to go with. Here you can see how I run the yarn up through the center of the arm prior to sewing the arms into place: I used the yarn from the other arm to sew the two spines on the back into place to pose the head into place. My baby dragon is done!

Placing the spines: I always look at the dragon from the side and the back, before deciding where to place the spines. For this little dragon, I decided to place the first spine where it would cover the clumsy stitching I did on the neck: I know you can't see it in the photo, and I apologize for that. My batteries started to die at this point, so I had to ration my photo's. I'm sewing the first spine in this photo: Another thing I watch for when placing and sewing the spines in place is to follow the line of the head and neck. This little dragon has it's head slightly twisted to the right, I want to make sure I sew the spine to follow that slight twist: I space and sew the other two spines in place.

Our little dragon needs to be able to hear the secrets you whisper to him or her, so let's sew on the ears! The first step I do is to gather the ears into shape by weaving the yarn tails through the last row of stitches: Here I have it in the shape I like, and I'm ready to sew it onto the head: I always note the row of stitches, and placement behind the eyes, so that the ears are both even. Then I sew the ear to the head: There! Now our little dragon can hear! As you can see, the dragon is beginning to develop more and more of a personality. But it's not finished yet. Our next step is to place the spines on the back of the dragon.

Now's the time to prepare the arms for sewing to the body. I stuff only the bottom half of the arms to make it easier to pose them, as shown in this photo: Next, I decide where I want the arm, and start to sew it into place: Here you see I have both arms in place. I haven't trimmed the long yarn ends yet as I use these to pose the dragon. The posing part usually comes as a final step.

Now I'm ready to sew the feet onto the body. Remembering that the tail and the feet both help balance the body and head of the dragon, I place the feet where I think I want them. Even though my dragon is looking off to the right, I need to line my feet up with the tail. Pinning them into place before I sew them helps. Looking at it from the bottom, making sure they are lined up with the tail correctly: Here's my baby dragon with his head, tail and feet all sewn to his body: Now all I have to do is sew the arms, ears and spines on, and my baby dragon will be complete!

Now I'm ready to stuff the tail and sew it to the body. Here's the back of the body: And the tail all stuffed. I use the long yarn 'tail' of the tail to sew it to the body: Holding the tail to the body prior to sewing: And sewing the tail in place:

Here I have the head and the body stuffed and ready to be sewn together. I hold up the body and decide where I want to sew the body to the neck, and where my tail will be: Sometimes I need to flatten the neck a little to sew the head to it. I do this by pressing down with my finger, flattening it. Then using the same yarn I sewed the head together with, I start sewing the neck to the head: Going around: And around the neck and head: I bury the yarn tails in the center of the head or body, and here we have the head sewn to the body: Here's another view of the head sewn to the body. The stitches seem to blend in pretty well, no matter how clumsy my sewing is:

As promised, a step by step tutorial on how I assemble my crcoheted baby dragons. Step One: Gather all the body parts. Step Two: Assembling the head. Before I stuff the head and sew it to the body, I sew the eyelids into place, and attach the eyeposts. Here I have one eyelid sewn to the head: And sewing the second eye to the head: Here I have both eyelids and eyeposts in place: Now it's time to stuff the head: And weave the ends of the yarn through the last row of stitches: Pull tight, and make one or two stitches to lock into place. Then weave the yarn down the back of the head to where it will attach to the neck: Here's a side view of the head all sewn shut, with the yarn in place to sew the head to the neck of the dragon.