Working the cap straight out of the stem keeps this crochet mushroom plushie pattern free of any seam to line up. One sharp increase round gives the cap its overhang, and spots embroider on at the end.
Cap and stem grow out of one continuous piece on this free crochet mini mushroom amigurumi pattern no-sew, so there is no join to line up and nothing to sew on afterwards. You work the stem first as a narrow tube, then increase sharply outward to form the cap and decrease again to close the top. Red cap with white spots, or brown and cream if you want it looking like something that would actually grow. Increase in one round rather than gradually, since a slow flare gives you a lampshade.
Crochet Mini Mushroom Amigurumi
One piece, no sewing, finished in a single sitting. The red cap and tan body are crocheted continuously with a colour change and a front-loop-only round marking the join, which creates a clean natural ridge between the two sections. The bobble arms and legs are worked directly into the body rounds as you pass them no separate tubes, no attachment later. The white spots are French-knot-style surface stitches added at the end. If you have been looking for a pattern that goes from cast-on to finished without a pile of pieces to manage, this is it.
One thing a first-time maker of this pattern might not expect: the bobble arms in Round 13 look dramatically wrong until Round 14 decreases them back in. Do not panic after Round 13. The round that follows corrects the shape.
Materials and Tools
- Worsted weight yarn in red for the cap
- Worsted weight yarn in tan for the body
- Worsted weight yarn in white for the spots
- 2.75 mm crochet hook
- Two 2 mm safety eyes
- Craft glue to secure the safety eyes
- Black embroidery thread for the mouth
- Polyfill stuffing
- Stitch marker
- Yarn needle
- Embroidery needle
- Scissors
- Pink makeup or chalk blush for the cheeks
Pieces List
- Cap and body: 1 piece, worked continuously with a colour change at Round 10
- White spots: surface-stitched after closing
- Face: safety eyes, embroidered mouth and blush applied after assembly
No separate pieces are made or sewn on. The arms and legs are bobble stitches worked into the body rounds.
The Pattern
Cap (Red Yarn)
Worked in continuous spiral rounds. Use a stitch marker.
- Round 1: Work 6 SC into a magic ring. Pull tight to close. (6 stitches)
- Round 2: Work 1 SC, 1 increase. Repeat 3 times. (9 stitches)
- Round 3: Work 1 SC, 1 increase, 2 SC, 1 increase. Repeat the 2 SC, 1 increase sequence 2 more times, then finish with 1 SC. (12 stitches) Checkpoint: a small flat disc with no curl — if it is already beginning to cup, the tension is tight and the finished mushroom will be smaller than the estimate.
- Round 4: Work 1 SC, 1 increase. Repeat 6 times. (18 stitches)
- Round 5: Work 1 SC, 1 increase, then 2 SC, 1 increase. Repeat the 2 SC, 1 increase sequence 5 more times, then finish with 1 SC. (24 stitches)
- Round 6: SC around. (24 stitches) Checkpoint: the cap should now be a wide, flat-to-gently-domed disc about 6 cm across. Still sitting mostly flat is correct.
- Round 7: Work 3 SC, 1 increase. Repeat 6 times. (30 stitches)
- Rounds 8 and 9: SC around for 2 rounds. (30 stitches per round)
- Round 10: Work 1 SC, 1 invisible decrease. Repeat 10 times. On the very last stitch of this round, change to tan yarn before completing the final pull-through to transition into the body. (20 stitches) Checkpoint: the cap should now be visibly rounding down at the edges — a dome rather than a flat disc. The colour change happens at the end of this round, not the start of the next.
Body (Tan Yarn)
- Round 11: Working through the front loops only for this entire round — work 3 SC, 1 increase. Repeat 5 times. (25 stitches) The front-loop-only round creates a visible ridge that separates the cap from the body. That ridge is intentional and should be a clean horizontal line. If it is uneven, the hook caught the back loop on some stitches.
- Round 12: SC around. (25 stitches) Checkpoint: the body is now a short cylinder below the cap ridge. It should look proportionally wide rather than tall at this stage.
- Round 13 (arms): Work 7 SC. Work the first partial bobble stitch: yarn over, insert hook into the next stitch, pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through the first 2 loops. Repeat this sequence 3 times into the same stitch until you have 4 loops on the hook, then yarn over and pull through all 4 loops. Work 8 SC. Work the second partial bobble stitch in the next stitch using the same method. Work 8 SC to finish the round. (25 stitches) If the bobble is pulling inward rather than popping outward, the yarn-over tension at the final pull-through is too tight — let it sit loose.
- Round 14: Work 7 SC, 1 invisible decrease incorporating the bobble stitch and the next stitch, 7 SC, 1 invisible decrease, 7 SC. (23 stitches) This round draws the bobbles back against the body so the arms sit flush rather than jutting out.
- Round 15: SC around. (23 stitches)
Pause here and stuff the red cap firmly with polyfill before continuing. The cap becomes harder to access after Round 16.
- Round 16 (legs): Work 7 SC. Work 1 partial bobble stitch for the first leg. Work 7 SC. Work 1 partial bobble stitch for the second leg. Work 7 SC to finish. (23 stitches) Checkpoint: both leg bobbles should sit directly below both arm bobbles. If one has shifted, count back and check the 7-SC sequences — a drift of one stitch is enough to misalign the legs with the arms.
- Round 17: Work 1 SC, 1 decrease. Repeat 11 times. (12 stitches) Stuff the body fully and firmly before continuing — this is the last chance to get stuffing into the lower section.
- Final round: Work decreases all the way around until 6 stitches remain.
- Closing: Fasten off, leaving a tail. Thread onto a yarn needle and weave through the front loops of the remaining 6 stitches, pull tight to close the hole completely, then hide the tail inside the body.
Safety Eye Timing
- The safety eyes go in between Rounds 12 and 13, spaced about 4 stitches apart and roughly 2 stitches away from each arm bobble on either side. This has to happen while the body is still open — by Round 17 the opening is far too small to access the inside and press the backings on. Insert the eyes before working Round 13, push the backings on firmly until seated, and secure with a drop of glue once the backings are in place.
- For any mushroom going to a child under three, skip the safety eyes and glue entirely. Embroider the eyes instead with black thread, using 4 to 5 tight satin stitches in a small oval at the same position between Rounds 12 and 13. The embroidered version holds up to washing and handling in a way that glued safety eyes do not.
Stuffing Guide
- Two separate stuffing points and each one matters. The cap gets firmly packed during the pause at Round 15, once the body has enough rows to hold the stuffing from below. Push fibrefill up into the dome of the cap rather than just filling the lower section — a flat-topped mushroom means the top of the cap is hollow. The body gets its fill just before the final round, pushed down into the lower section and the legs so no part feels soft when pressed.
- Over-stuffing shows as stretched stitches with white fibrefill visible through the fabric. If you can see stuffing from the outside at any point, pull some back out. Under-stuffing in the cap makes the dome sag. Under-stuffing in the body makes the base collapse inward and the mushroom will not stand upright.
Assembly
- There is no sewing. Once the piece is closed, the remaining steps are all surface work.
- Spots first. Thread white yarn onto a yarn needle, knot the end securely, and enter through the base of the mushroom to hide the knot inside. Bring the needle out anywhere on the red cap and stitch a small loop or French knot, then move to the next spot. Work sporadically across the cap — real mushroom spots are not evenly spaced, and trying to make them symmetrical looks more artificial than random placement does.
- Face next. Position the safety eyes at Round 12 to 13 if you have not already done so, then embroider the mouth in black thread between them — a small vertical V shape, two or three stitches deep. Finally, dab a small amount of pink blush onto the face on each side of the mouth with a fingertip or cotton swab. Apply less than you think you need.
Toy Safety
The glued safety eyes are the main concern here. Craft glue holds well on a display piece or an adult’s desk toy but is not reliable on anything that will be chewed, squeezed or washed regularly. For a child’s toy, embroider the eyes as described above and skip the glue entirely. The embroidered version requires no additional fixative and will outlast any adhesive option. The same applies to the embroidered mouth — thread both tails back inside the body and knot them securely before burying the ends.
FAQ
- My bobble arms are pointing inward rather than outward. What went wrong? The partial bobble needs to be pushed to the outside of the piece while you work the final pull-through. After completing the bobble stitch, use your thumb to push it outward from inside — if you are working tight tension, it may want to sit on the wrong side. Some makers flip the whole piece inside out briefly, work the bobble, then flip back.
- The colour change at Round 10 looks messy. How do I clean it up? Change colour on the last pull-through of the last stitch in the round rather than at the start of the next. That puts the new colour at the true beginning of Round 11 rather than a half-stitch late, which is where most visible joins come from. Once the piece is finished, use the yarn needle to tighten any loose stitches around the join from the inside.
- Can I make this bigger? Yes. Switching to DK weight at a 3.5 mm hook with the same round counts gives you a noticeably larger mushroom. Going up to worsted at 4.0 mm with a few extra even rounds added to Rounds 8 to 9 and Rounds 14 to 15 gives a large, shelf-display version. The bobble arms and legs scale naturally — no adjustment needed for those.