Behind the Scenes – Gigi the Galah

Hello crafters!

I’m hoping to share a bit more of my design process with you, in what I will call my “behind the scenes” posts. Today I wanted to share how I came up with my design for the #amigurumishowcase that was hosted on Instagram (entries finished on the 30th of August and shortlisted designs will be announced on the 6th of September). For a bit of background, this was an amigurumi design contest organised for new and emerging designers (with less than 5,000 followers on Insta). I have now been designing for a few years but I still fit the requirement so I thought I would give it a go. The other prompt was that the finished design had to fit in the palm of your hand. This was perfect because I love to design small amigurumi that I know won’t take me weeks to finish (instant gratification anyone?).

It was actually quite lucky that I had recently sketched a few ideas for new designs, including those three birds. Which one is your favourite? I’m probably going to end up making them all!

Recently, I’ve been really inspired by Australian animals, especially with all the beautiful and unique birds we have around, so I chose to make the little galah from my sketch. To make my amigurumi, I always start with the easy shapes and then try to make the harder ones.

I like to start with the head and the body, because I usually make spheres to which I then add the details. For this design, I decided to also crochet the eyes because I wanted to make it more baby/toddler friendly (my 2 yo son is currently stealing all my plushies!).

When I’m happy with all my elements, I use pins to put them in place. I have found that this really helps with the sewing process, especially to make sure that everything is symmetrical. I didn’t use to like sewing pieces but I’m enjoying it more and more since I’ve started using this method. Would you be interested in a couple of videos showing how to sew pieces on amigurumi?

A little bit of sewing later and my little galah was finished!

I’m very please with how it turned out, and with some help from my followers I’ve decided to name her Gigi! Regardless of if my design is shortlisted or not, I will be releasing this pattern for free here on the blog, so if you fancy making your own little Gigi the Galah, it will be available here soon!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, let me know in the comments if you’d like to see more behind the scenes, and if you’d like to see a yellow crested cockatoo or a kookaburra next!

X Emma