Materials:
Acrylic, wool or cotton yarn. Colours: red, white, black, grey. I used acrylic yarn, 250 m/100 g. The size of a bullfinch approx. 4 cm.
- Hollow fiber toy
- A crochet hook, I used 1,25 mm crochet hook
- A sewing needle, matching sewing threads
- for the beak: a small amount of brown yarn (or a piece of polymer clay)
Abbreviations:
ch – chain
sl st – slip stitch
sc – single crochet
hdc – half double crochet
inc – increase (2 sc in 1 st)
dec – decrease (single crochet two stitches together)
(...) x N times – repeat instructions in brackets N times
Body - Head
Start with white colour yarn.
1) 6 sc in a Magic Ring
2) 6 inc (12)
3) (1 sc, inc)× 6 times (18)
Change to red yarn. Fasten off and cut off the white yarn.
4) (1 sc, inc, 1 sc)× 6 times (24)
5) 4 sc, 2 dec, 7 sc, inc, 4 sc, inc, 3 sc (24)
6) 3 sc, 2 dec, 17 sc (22)
7) 2 sc, 2 dec, 16 sc (20)
8) 1 sc, 2 dec, (1 sc, dec)× 5 times (13)
Add some hollow fibre. Change to black colour yarn.
9) black: 4 sc, red: 1 sc, 2 inc, 1 sc, inc, 1 sc, 2 inc, 1 sc (18)
10) black: 1 sc, (inc, 1 sc)×2 times, red: (inc, 1 sc)× 3 times, 1 sc, (inc, 1 sc)× 3 times (26)
11) black: 8 sc, red: 17 sc, black: 1 sc (26)
12) black: 10 sc, red: dec, 5 sc, black: 1 sc, red: 5 sc, dec, black: 1 sc (24)
Continue with black colour yarn alone. Fasten off and cut off the red yarn.
13-14) 24 sc
15) (dec, 2 sc)× 6 times (18)
Add hollow fiber.
16) (dec, 1 sc)× 6 times (12)
17) 6 dec (6)
Pull off the loops. Cut the thread, hide the end.
Tail - Back
Start with black colour yarn.
7 ch
1) starting from 3rd ch from hook: 1 hdc, 2 sc, 2 sl st, 1 ch, turn (5)
2) 2 sl st, 3 sc, 2 ch, turn (5)
3) 1 hdc, 2 sc, 2 sl st (5)
Change to grey yarn.
4) Crochet from A to B: 3 sc, 1 ch, turn (3)
5) inc, 1 sc, inc, 1 ch, turn (5)
6) inc, 3 sc, inc, 1 ch, turn (7)
7) 7 sc, 1 ch, turn (7)
8) 2 sc, 3 sc together, 2 sc, 1 ch, turn (5)
9) 1 sc, 1 sl st, 1 sc (5)
Cut off yarn, leave a tail for further operation.
Wing (make 2)
Grey yarn
5 ch
1) starting from 2nd ch from hook: 1 sl st, 1 sc, 1 hdc, 4 hdc in the last stitch, continue along the other side of chain: 1 hdc, 1 sc, 1 sl st (10)
Bind off, cut off any excess yarn.
Sew on the wings and back, see the pictures for guidance.
Embroider the eyes with stitches (see the picture for guidance), use same yarn and make tight wraps around those stitches with yarn.
Embroider the whites of the eyes with white colour yarn.
Make a triangular beak out of polymer/self - hardening clay. Put the beak in a pre-heated oven and bake following the instructions. Let the beak cool down, then cover it with varnish and glue on.
You can also crochet a beak.
Crocheted Beak
Brown yarn
2 ch
1) in 2nd ch from hook: 2 sc, 1 ch, turn (2)
2) 2 inc (4)
Cut off yarn, leave a tail for further operation.
Sew sides. Sew the beak to the head.
Your bullfinch is completed! It looks very nice as a Christmas tree decoration, you only need to make a loop or a clamp on it.