Hello! Just popping in today to share the adorable projects I made for my nephew’s first birthday back in April, a set of crochet cars and planes. Yes, I’m a little behind on blogging, but excited to share some recent projects over the coming weeks. Also, I spent an entire week writing another blog post so I could explain a technique I used in this blog post.
Ollie and Everleigh both love cars and planes, and Ollie’s nursery theme was vintage airplanes! So I made a set of cars and planes they could play with together, using the leftovers from his baby blanket (pictured below)
Cars
The toy cars used this pattern by Olga Krylova. I made a couple modifications, noted below.
Car Modifications
Clean Color Changes
I spent a lot of time getting clean color changes, which I used for the car on the wheels between the inner (white) and outer (black) rounds. I used the “clean” color change instructions from this post I shared recently. I also used the technique to modify the top in the following way:
Work rows 1-9 according to the instructions
Work row 10 in MC and still work it only in the back loops
Then switch to the white windows color on round 11, using the clean SHARP color change method from this post.
Headlights
I also worked the headlights differently:
Round 1: 4 sc in a magic circle, then use an invisible finish into the 1st stitch of the round (not the second like you would in the other clean finish instructions I linked)
Planes
For the planes, I used this pattern by the Amigurumi blog. I made a couple modifications here as well!
Plane Modifications
Longer Wings
I added 3 rounds at the end of each wing.
Replaced Portholes with a Cockpit
My husband kindly pointed out that vintage planes had tiny cockpits, not portholes! So I made a pattern for my own cockpit:
Start with a magic circle (MC)
Round 1: Sc 6 in the MC – 6 st
Round 2: Sc 3, inc 3 times – 9 st
Round 3: sc 3, (inc, sc) 3 times – 12 st
Round 4: sc 3, (2sc, inc) 3 times – 15 st
Rounds 5 and 6: sc around -15 st
Round 7: sc 3, (sc, dec) 4 times – 11 st
Add stuffing
Round 8: sc 3, dec 3 times – 8 st
Close the open end
Clean Color Changes
As mentioned above for the cars, I also used this color change method, that I developed from a few different sources, to get a sharp color change between rounds 3-4 and 5-6.
The Verdict?
Ollie loved some “vroom vroom” sound effects and was playing with the little red car at brunch! Bonus points that stuffed toys don’t hurt when little ones toss them at you. It’s extra fun to deliver the toys in person. Apologies for neglecting a photo of play time, I was enjoying myself way too much!
And finally, if you’re wondering, my niece absolutely got a first birthday make as well, pictured below. It just didn’t end up as a blog post.
Everleigh’s first birthday gift
Do you make crochet toys as gifts? Do you add sound effects? Let me know in the comments!