Making the Baby Dragon Pattern (bts)
Making a dragon was on my To Do List for quite some time. I even bought that lime green yarn specifically with this project in mind. Since 2024 is the year of the dragon, I thought it was the perfect time to make one!
Watch the behind the scenes video on how I made this baby dragon pattern!
It started with this rough concept sketch. I wanted it to look like a baby dragon.
And then it should have been on to crocheting . . . but to tell you the truth, it took me several months to finally pick up the hook. The dragon idea didn’t fully leave my mind though. In the meantime, I designed these yarn-hoarding dragon enamel pins for crocheters like me who like to have piles of yarn like a dragon hoarding its treasure!
My first design was the green yarn dragon and then I also made a midnight dragon in black! I’m a late night crocheter, so the midnight dragon was designed for those who constantly say “one more round and then I’ll go to bed” and suddenly, hours have passed! Or of course, for anyone who just prefers the color black!
When I finally got to crocheting the dragon, making the base was the hardest part. I’m not going to lie, I was second guessing a lot on the face shape. On top of that, I was also trying to make the head, body, and tail as one continuous piece. This meant a lot of experimenting with increases and decreases to form the shape that I wanted.
But eventually, I got this! It was roughly the shape that I had drawn in my sketch, but I was truly trusting the process that adding the extra parts would bring it all together. At this point, it was definitely giving “caterpillar.”
For the spikes, I wanted to try this new technique where I crocheted the spikes directly onto the dragon instead of crocheting a separate piece to sew on. I was quite happy with how it turned out and luckily, the other parts were pretty straight forward and soon I had a . . . dinosaur!
Of course, to turn it into a dragon, I had to make some wings! I also added some extra detailing such as the belly, the nostrils, and blush for a pop of color.
Now it was onto the testing process! This was a pattern that I definitely wanted to have tested, especially with all the increases and decreases for the base of the dragon. I wanted to make sure it worked up correctly for others too and I am so happy with the results. Look at all the amazing dragons my 10 pattern testers made with various colors and types of yarn!
You can now purchase this PDF pattern here or on Etsy! Or join my Patreon and get this PDF pattern (included with Pattern Club membership) along with all my other paid patterns and more.
Or if you’d like to make a smaller no-sew version, you can find my free dragon hatchling pattern here.
On top of that, I also made a free Spring Dragon modification guide for the baby dragon pattern! Even while I was making this dragon, I started getting new ideas for other variations of this dragon. The spikes really reminded me of tuffs of grass, so I wanted to make one with flowers sprouting out of the spikes. You can find that Spring Dragon modification guide here. You will need the original baby dragon pattern to complete this pattern.
I also made a strawberry dragon mod as well! You can find the strawberry dragon modification guide here!
I hope you love making these dragons as much as I loved creating these patterns for you!
And if you post your dragon onto social media, don’t forget to tag me, so I can see it too!
Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube: @themaryjay
Looking for free patterns? Check out my collection of free patterns here!