Crochet Penguin Plushie Pattern Free For Christmas

Give it a tiny scarf and the penguin turns into a Christmas piece rather than a year-round toy. This crochet penguin pattern free amigurumi holds its shape once you stuff it firmly, so it stands on a shelf instead of slumping.

Two colours do all the work in this crochet penguin plushie pattern free for Christmas, black for the back and head, white for the front panel that runs from chin to feet. Body, wings, beak, and feet are all here, worked in the round with the colour change managed as you go rather than sewn on after. Beginners who have done a magic ring will handle it. The trickiest moment is keeping the white panel centred as the body widens.

Crochet Christmas Ornaments Penguin

The two-tone pom-pom is a technique most makers underestimate, and this penguin is built entirely on getting it right. Wrap white on one face of the card and black over the rest, tie and cut in the usual way, and when you fluff the finished ball you will have a clean white oval sitting at the front without a single additional step of assembly, because the layering does the work that a sewn panel would otherwise do. The egg carton cup underneath is the other thing that separates a tight, round, gallery-worthy penguin from one that looks like it sat on itself.

Countdown Before You Start

• One penguin, start to finish: an hour and a half to two hours, including trimming and assembly. The pom-pom wrapping and shaping takes the longest, roughly forty-five minutes, and the hot glue work at the end is quick once everything is laid out.
• A batch of six: seven to eight hours. Wrapping all six pom-poms at once, before any assembly, cuts the mental overhead considerably.
• Latest sensible start for one: the morning of the same day. Glue dries in minutes and there is no drying or blocking anywhere in this project.
• Latest sensible start for twelve as gifts: three evenings of two hours each. Cut all your egg carton bases in the first ten minutes and the rest of the production line runs smoothly.

What Makes This Design Stand Out

The finished penguin works because three independent craft techniques are doing exactly the job each was designed for: the egg carton cup gives a rigid belly-forward form that no amount of pom-pom wrapping could produce on its own, the layered two-tone pom-pom creates the colour split without any sewing or felt panels, and the lark’s head knot hat gives a fringe that sits as a proper rolled brim rather than a floppy cap. Together they produce a piece that reads as designed rather than assembled. The scale is also worth noticing. At roughly eight centimetres tall, this sits in the sweet spot between tree ornament and shelf display object, and it works as both simultaneously.

Pieces List

• Two-tone pom-pom body over egg carton base, make 1 per penguin
• Mini yarn beanie hat, make 1 per penguin
• Braided red scarf, make 1 per penguin
• Black yarn or felt wings, make 2 per penguin
• Orange pipe cleaner feet, make 1 pair per penguin
• Orange pipe cleaner or felt beak, make 1 per penguin
• Black bead or safety eye, make 2 per penguin
• Mini white pom-pom for hat top, make 1 per penguin

What You’ll Need

• Black or dark navy yarn for the body and wings
• White yarn for the belly panel within the pom-pom
• Red yarn for the hat and scarf
• Cardboard, approximately 7 to 8 cm wide, for wrapping the pom-pom. A thin piece of stiff packaging works, or a few layers of cereal box card taped together
• One egg carton cup per penguin, trimmed from a cardboard egg carton
• One small cardboard ring per penguin, cut from a paper towel tube, approximately 1 cm tall
• Orange or yellow pipe cleaners, two per penguin
• Two small black beads or safety eyes, 4 to 6 mm each, per penguin
• Orange felt or a small orange bead for the beak, optional alternative to pipe cleaner
• One small ready-made white pom-pom per penguin, for the hat top
• Sharp scissors
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• A 20 cm length of yarn for tying the pom-pom centre

Safety Eyes And Beads

This design uses glued beads rather than push-through safety eyes, and the difference in security matters.

• A glued bead on a yarn surface is less secure than a washer-backed safety eye, particularly on a pom-pom where the glue is bonding to fibre rather than a solid fabric. Pull each eye gently after the glue has set and test it.
• For anything going to a child under three, skip beads and eyes entirely. Embroider two small black French knots, or sew a short straight stitch in black yarn through the body and back, knotting it on the inside of the egg carton before the pom-pom goes on.
• The beak pipe cleaner is the other piece to watch. A 0.5 cm tip of bent orange pipe cleaner is not a choking hazard for an older child but is absolutely one for a toddler. Replace it with a flat orange felt triangle glued flush to the surface.
• The same substitutions apply to any penguin going into a treat bag, a party favour or a classroom set, regardless of the stated age on the class list.
• If you are adding a hanging loop, thread it through the inside of the hat before gluing the hat down and knot it above the hat rather than below, so it cannot be pulled through.

Where Makers Usually Go Wrong On This One

• The pom-pom wraps unevenly and the white belly is off-centre. This happens when the white yarn is applied to both faces of the card during the first pass, or when the card tilts during wrapping. Keep the white strictly to one flat face before switching to black. Mark the white side with a finger as you start and do not turn the card over until you are past the white.
• The white oval disappears into the black after trimming. The ratio is the problem. Eighty to one hundred wraps of black is only correct if the white wraps number around forty to fifty. If you wrapped less white, it gets swallowed. Over-trimming the finished pom-pom makes this worse because the shorter the fibres, the more the colours blend at the border. Stop trimming the white side when the oval still reads as clearly separate, not when it is perfectly smooth.
• The egg carton cup shows through the pom-pom. Gluing the cup to the centre of the pom-pom rather than pressing the pom-pom over the cup causes this. Apply glue to the outer surface of the cup first, then work the pom-pom onto it from the outside in, pressing the yarn down and around the rim rather than holding the yarn stationary and pushing the cup up into it. The fibres need to cover the rim completely.
• The hat slides forward and covers the eyes. It is positioned before the scarf, and the scarf is positioned before the hat, but the scarf being glued first changes the texture at the neckline and the hat sometimes does not sit flat against a smooth surface anymore. Glue the scarf first, let it set completely, then position the hat and check it is sitting level at the back as well as the front before committing.
• The feet are too far back and the penguin falls forward. Pipe cleaner feet need to be slightly forward of the centre base, not at the rear edge where instinct puts them. Hold the finished body upright, find its natural balance point, and glue the feet two or three millimetres in front of that. A penguin that leans slightly backwards looks planted. One that leans forward looks like it is perpetually about to fall off your shelf, which is not the look.
• The hot glue strings ruin the surface. Work in a warm room, not a cold one, and pull the glue gun away sharply rather than dragging it. Any strings that land on the yarn can be rolled off between two fingers once the glue is completely cold and dry.

The Pattern

Preparing The Egg Carton Base

• Cut one individual cup cleanly from a cardboard egg carton, cutting around the base of the cup rather than across the dividers.
• Trim the rim down evenly so the cup is a smooth dome with no jagged flaps. The rim line should form an even circle all the way around.
• Test the cup on a flat surface. It should sit without rocking. If it tilts, trim the low side in small cuts until it levels. The stability of the finished penguin depends entirely on this base sitting true.
• Set aside.

Two-Tone Pom-Pom Body

• Cut or identify a piece of stiff cardboard approximately 7 to 8 cm wide. The width determines the pom-pom diameter, so if you want a larger penguin, use a wider card.
• Hold the card with one face toward you and wrap white yarn around it 40 to 50 times across that front face only, keeping the wraps side by side and tensioned evenly. Do not wrap the reverse face. The resulting white layer should cover most of the front of the card in a flat band.
• Switch to black yarn and wrap over the entire bundle, front and back, for approximately 80 to 100 total wraps including the black. The black covers the white wraps on the front and builds up the back and sides. By the end the bundle should feel dense and the card should be difficult to slide your fingers past.
• Cut a 20 cm length of black yarn and slide it through the centre of the bundle, between the yarn and the card, at the midpoint. Tie it tightly in a double knot. Tie it tighter than seems necessary.
• Slide the bundle off the card and cut all the loops open on both ends with sharp scissors.
• Shake and fluff the pom-pom. The white should already be visible as a rough patch on one face. Trim the black side and the sides smooth, cutting with small snips rather than long cuts, and work toward a round ball shape.
• Once the overall shape is round, switch attention to the white face. Trim the white fibres slightly shorter than the surrounding black to make the belly oval sit inward slightly, which reads more naturally as a chest. Do not trim the border between white and black, and stop trimming the white face before it looks completely smooth. The texture reads better at a slightly longer length.
• The finished pom-pom should be clearly two-tone with the white oval sitting in the lower front third and the black covering everything else. It should not look blended or marbled at the border.

Assembling Body Over Base

• Apply a ring of hot glue around the outer sides of the trimmed egg carton cup.
• Press the pom-pom down over the cup, white side forward, and work the yarn fibres over the rim on all sides. The rim should disappear completely under the yarn.
• Apply a second small ring of glue around the base edge and press the yarn down to cover it. The pom-pom should now be firmly anchored and the cup should be completely hidden.
• Hold the assembled body upright and confirm the white belly is centred and forward, the top of the pom-pom is the highest point, and nothing is showing through.

Wings, Make Two

• Option one: wrap black yarn tightly around two fingers fifteen to twenty times, slide the loops off and pinch them into a dense oval, then tie the centre and trim to a small drop shape. The result should be flat enough to sit flush against the body and dense enough not to splay open.
• Option two: cut two small drop shapes from black felt, approximately 2 cm long by 1 cm wide at the widest point.
• Set both wings aside unsewn.

Feet

• Take an orange or yellow pipe cleaner and bend a small V shape, approximately 1.5 cm across, then pinch the base of the V together and bend it back at ninety degrees to form a flat foot with a short upright tab. Make two.
• Alternatively, bend one continuous pipe cleaner into two V shapes with a short straight section between them, keeping that centre section as the base attachment point.
• Set aside.

Beak

• Cut a 0.5 cm tip from an orange pipe cleaner and bend it into a very slight V shape so it reads as a tiny open beak rather than a flat bar.
• Alternatively, cut a small triangle from orange felt, approximately 0.5 cm at the base and 0.4 cm tall.
• Set aside.

Mini Yarn Beanie Hat

• Cut a 1 cm tall ring from a paper towel tube or roll a strip of thin cardboard into a ring of the same height and tape it closed.
• Cut 25 to 30 strands of red yarn, each approximately 15 cm long.
• Take one strand and fold it in half. Loop the folded end through the ring from the outside and pull the two loose ends through the loop to lock it on with a lark’s head knot. Pull it snug.
• Repeat all the way around the ring until the outer surface is completely covered in knotted red yarn. The ring should not show at all between the knots, and the loose ends should all fall downward and outward. If it does show, add more strands.
• Gather all the loose ends together above the ring and tie them tightly with a separate length of red yarn, as close to the ring top as possible.
• Trim the gathered ends down to about 1 cm above the knot, then fluff them open into a small pom-pom shape.
• Apply hot glue to the top of this mini pom-pom and press a small ready-made white pom-pom onto it. The white pom-pom should sit clearly above the hat rather than being swallowed into the red.
• If you are hanging this as a tree ornament, thread a length of thin cord or yarn through the inside of the ring before continuing, and knot it so the loop sits above the white pom-pom once the hat is assembled.

Braided Red Scarf

• Cut three strands of red yarn approximately 20 cm long.
• Braid them together from one end to the other and knot each end twice to prevent unravelling.
• The finished braid should be long enough to wrap once around the upper third of the penguin body with a short overlap. If it is too long, trim before knotting.

Assembly

• Identify the gluing sequence before picking up the gun: feet first, then beak, then eyes, then wings, then scarf, then hat. Working in this order prevents later pieces from covering earlier attachment points.
• Glue the feet to the underside of the egg carton base, positioned slightly forward of centre. Hold the penguin upright to check balance before the glue sets.
• Glue the beak at the upper border of the white belly, pointing slightly downward. The beak placement defines where everything else goes, so take a moment to confirm it is centred horizontally.
• Glue the two black beads or eyes directly above the beak, separated by about half a centimetre. They should sit in the black yarn, not in the white.
• Glue both wings to the sides of the body, angled slightly downward from shoulder to tip. Pin them with your fingers for fifteen seconds while the glue sets.
• Wrap the scarf around the body just below where the hat will sit and glue the overlap point at the back, not the front. Trim any excess so the front end is slightly longer than the back.
• Position the hat on the top of the pom-pom with the lark’s head knots forming a rolled brim and the white pom-pom pointing upward. The hat should sit level. Glue it firmly at the base where the ring meets the yarn.
• Allow all glue to cool completely before handling.

Stuffing Note

There is no stuffing in this design. The egg carton cup provides the internal form and the pom-pom provides the outer shape. The only thing to check is that the cup is not obviously hollow-sounding when the finished penguin is tapped, which would indicate the cup rim is not fully covered and pom-pom fibres have not packed against it. If that happens, a small additional piece of yarn pushed in at the base solves it.

The Character Dial: Arctic Or Festive

• Arctic. Pull every piece toward the natural world. Swap the red hat and scarf for deep navy or slate, and work the braided scarf in an undyed grey-white. Use charcoal rather than pure black for the body, and white that has a slightly warm tone rather than a bright optical white, so the two together read more like plumage than contrast panels. Remove the white hat pom-pom and replace it with a looped grey yarn knot instead. Give the feet a more realistic shape by bending the pipe cleaner toes forward rather than setting the V shapes flat. Substitute the bead eyes for small embroidered black dots and skip the scarf fringe. The result is something that could sit on a naturalist’s shelf rather than a Christmas one, and it is the more collectible version of the two.
• Full Festive. Go completely the other way. Variegated red and white striped yarn for the hat and scarf, worked from a candy-cane yarn if you have one. A hat with a tiny jingle bell glued to the white pom-pom at the top. Gold metallic thread woven into the braid of the scarf. Two tiny holly leaf buttons sewn onto the scarf overlap point instead of being hidden at the back. Multiple penguins in the same palette arranged as a family, the large one with a red scarf and the small ones with the same yarn in miniature. A base of gold or copper glitter felt cut to fit the egg carton underside and visible when the ornament hangs. This version is for the tree and for photographing, and it has no pretensions about it.
• The dial also moves through expression. Two standard bead eyes produce a neutral face. Angling both eyes very slightly toward each other produces a worried penguin. Setting them wide and level produces a surprised one. This is the only facial adjustment the design allows without adding a felt or yarn smile, and it is worth thinking about before the glue gun gets warm.

Colourways

• Midnight Pool. Deep navy body, warm white belly, teal hat and scarf, bronze or copper bead eyes. Less Christmas, more Northern Lights.
• Emperor. Pale silver-grey body, pure white belly, black hat with a silver pom-pom, no scarf. Formal, restrained, looks extremely good in a white room.
• Sugar Cookie. Warm cream body where white usually goes, sandy beige where black usually goes, dusty rose hat and scarf, clear bead eyes. Pastel and soft-toned, works past December if you remove the hat.
• Classic Toboggan. Standard black and white, forest green hat and scarf instead of red, amber bead eyes. Less expected than red, and the green reads as woodland rather than Christmas specifically, which extends the shelf life by months.

A detail worth passing on: the egg carton cup is already orange-brown, and if the gluing is less than perfect and a small amount shows through the yarn near the base, it blends far better against a warm cream or sandy yarn than against pure white or black. If you are using a lighter yarn, check the cup coverage carefully before the glue fully sets.

Display Ideas

• Tree ornament on an outer branch at eye level, because the face needs to be seen straight on. A branch in the interior of the tree hides the belly.
• Row of six on a mantel shelf, each with a different hat colour, facing slightly different directions as if they are looking at each other. This arrangement photographs exceptionally well.
• Gift topper on a wrapped box, glued or tied down with the hanging loop. More interesting than a paper bow and gets kept after the gift is opened.
• Bowl filler, three penguins in a shallow wooden bowl with some cotton batting for snow. The standing versions look better than the hanging ones for this use.
• Window ledge, where the white belly catches available winter light and reads across the room.
• Desk ornament for December, next to a keyboard, because it is exactly the right size to be company without being in the way.
• Stocking stuffer in the larger size, tucked in cap-first, which is both the natural position and the best reveal when the stocking is emptied.

After The Season

Store in a single layer in a box where the hats will not be crushed, because the lark’s head knot fringe is what goes flat first and it does not entirely recover once it has been compressed for eleven months. A shallow shoebox with tissue paper folded loosely over each one is enough. The pipe cleaner feet will take a set if the penguin is stored with anything pressing on them, so stand them upright rather than on their sides. Pom-poms shed lightly in the first year and then settle, so a small amount of loose fibre in the storage box is normal and not a sign of deterioration.

Quick Answers

• The white belly vanished when I trimmed the pom-pom. What happened? The white wrap count was probably too low relative to the black. In a finished pom-pom, the white and black fibres compete for surface space, and if the white went on with fewer wraps it just loses. There is no fix after the fact, but the next one will be right if you count carefully and stop trimming the white face before it looks smooth.
• Can I use a foam ball instead of the egg carton cup? You can, and it will work, but you lose the flat base that keeps the penguin standing. A foam ball needs a felt circle glued to the bottom to stop it rolling, which adds a step, and the finished shape will be rounder rather than slightly belly-forward. The egg carton is genuinely the better choice, and it costs nothing.
• How do I keep it looking good through the whole season? Keep it out of direct sun, which will fade the red hat fastest. If it sits near a radiator the pipe cleaner feet may loosen slightly as the glue softens and sets repeatedly. A quick press with a finger once a week keeps them flat. Do not mist it with anything, including wrinkle sprays, because the pipe cleaners will rust.
• Can children help make this? Yes, the pom-pom wrapping is excellent for older children. From about eight and up, and the lark’s head hat is manageable from ten. The hot glue gun stays with the adult for everything. Younger children can choose the colours, cut the scarf strands, and do the final placement before gluing. Which makes the result genuinely theirs without any of the burn risk.