Crochet Amigurumi: Coraline update

The Other Mother, is a character that I’ve enjoyed in Coraline, sometimes I forget and refer to the book as “The Other Mother,” since that character was seared into my brain.

Over time, Coraline and The Other Mother have occasionally swapped roles when it comes to my favorite character from Neil Gamon’s book… The Other Mother was a bit off the rails with her approach, and she’s definitely evil, but even with those glaring flaws, I found her appealing.

With my old site; VeganMomma. I knew a blogger who went by the same name; The Other Mother. Of course… she was also a Neil Gamon fan, and as I recall, it’s something I asked when I first made a comment at her virtual home. By that time, I’d read many of Neil Gamon’s books. And so began our online friendship.  We visited one another’s blog, chatted via email, and clued each other on various authors during the time we corresponded; but that came to a halt, and I never knew what happened to her.

I wish I could remember her real name, but I can’t. I do know she lived in New Orleans, and I know her blog became silent shortly before Hurricane Katrina swept through Louisiana.

Whenever I think of  the book Coraline, or the character, The Other Mother, I do think of my blogging pal and wonder if she, her son, and her husband are fine. Some didn’t survive.

Crochet Coraline head

This afternoon, I had a chance to work on my amigurumi crochet Coraline; I didn’t get to improvise as I’d like, since the first Coraline that I’m crocheting, is being made for my daughter.  “Mommy, I want you make it just like Ms. Sharon’s!”

As mentioned in my earlier post, Sharon Ojala of Homemade Obsessions is the one who created this free pattern. So yes, with this first crocheted Coraline, there won’t be too much deviation.

I’ve always liked to root dolls hair, but this is my first time rooting a crochet amigurumi doll. The technique used is similar to what I’ve done in the past. I used a crochet hook to attach the “hair aka yarn.”

Crocheted Coraline: rooting Coraline’s hair

The face, is always the fun part for me, because I get to add a bit of personality to my crochet amigurumis through their facial expressions.

I really enjoyed embroidering the eyebrows and the nose.

It’s a shame you can’t really see the detail of the nose. I worked on that to make it look like a normal nose. I wanted to embroider Coraline’s eyes, but my daughter wanted them to be, “just like the pattern!”  So we used buttons. No worries, I’ll be making my own crochet Coraline, very soon.

Next up is embroidering the mouth, I’ll print out a few photos taken from Coraline the movie, and see whether any additional features need to be added before I start stuffing Coraline’s head.

Resource: Free coraline crochet pattern by Sharon Ojala of Homemade Obsessions