Bingsoo the Chubby Penguin Free Crochet Pattern

Bingsoo the Chubby Penguin is a cute and chubby amigurumi penguin here to help you welcome the colder weather! He’s the newest free pattern on my blog, and a great beginner friendly pattern for those who have never tried amigurumi before or are just starting out.

Keep reading to learn about my design process and the perfect yarn I chose, or scroll to the end to get the free pattern!

Mistake to Miracle?

If you saw one of my recent blog posts about Almanzo the Farmer Boy, then you’ll know that my pattern design process is anything but a straight and easy path. Often, I’ll have a great idea all sketched out in my head, but wind up with the wrong shape or size in my hands. Trial and error is an important part of crochet design (at least if not important, unavoidable), but it can be frustrating to spend a few hours on a new project and not have it turn out the way I had originally planned.

So when this happens, and I inevitably wind up staring unhappily at the offending project, I’m willing to do almost anything to avoid frogging it and starting back over at square one. This time, I had started out trying to make a cute mamegoma whale, but when what was supposed to be the front of the head was too flat, I stared at it for a bit and thought, “huh, that could be the head of a penguin”! And thus, Bingsoo was born.

To be fair, I had been thinking about making a chubby, rotund penguin for a little while, inspired by take apart erasers that I loved when I was a kid. I knew I wanted the shape to be simplistic with a small curve to a round bottom, and with clean lines to the details. Therefore, I made sure that Bingsoo had only the most minimal features with bright, fun colors to make him seem a little cartoonish and Hello Kitty-like. I feel like he would fit right in as a Sanrio or San-X character! 

Recently, I’ve also been obsessed with adding in small details and accessories to all my amigurumi. I realized that even just one extra detail can immediately elevate the cute factor of the entire plushie, and I decided that for Bingsoo a large bow in a bright contrast color would be just the ticket. It definitely doesn’t hurt that my favorite color is orange!

Moral of the story is, there’s a silver lining to everything, and sometimes that silver lining comes in the form of a chubby blue penguin 🙂 

Bonus tidbit: My favorite part about this pattern is that Bingsoo’s bottom is rounded. He can stand on his own without any problem, but if you poke him from the side, he’ll actually bobble back and forth instead of falling over. I think it’s so cute and reminds me this scene from Kung Fu Panda!

The Fluffier, the Better!

For this project, I used Lion Brand Feels Like Butta for the body and beak. I love this yarn in general, but specifically for this project because its chenille-like texture makes the body slightly fuzzy and really soft to touch. 

This yarn also comes in a large palette of cute and pastel colorways, which all complement each other perfectly (if you decide to make a whole waddle of penguins)!

For the belly, I chose not to use Feels Like Butta because I found that this yarn resulted in a lumpy, ridged texture instead of being a perfectly flat oval, and used Lion Brand Baby Soft instead. This sport weight yarn was perfect for getting that level surface for the belly detail!

The Pattern

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Description

Bingsoo the Chubby Penguin is an adorable and easy beginner’s amigurumi project. If you can make a ball then you can make this pattern! He stands straight on a round bottom and wobbles like a bobble head when you nudge him on the side, and is the perfect bag charm or desk companion. Make him in a whole range of pastel colors and add your own pop of color in his little bow!

Yarn

• Lion Brand Feels Like Butta
  • <1 skein of Pale Ice (worsted weight)
  • <1 skein of Pastel Yellow (worsted weight
• Lion Brand Yarn Baby Soft
  • <1 skein of White (sport weight)
• YarnArt Jeans
  • <1 skein of Orange (sport weight)

Notions

• Size C (2.5 mm) Clover Amour crochet hook
• 4.0 mm safety eyes
• tapestry needle
• polyester fiberfill
• stitch markers
• black embroidery thread

Abbreviations (US)

• Sc: Single crochet
• Ch: Chain
• Sl st: Slip stitch
• Yo: Yarn over
• Hdc: Half double crochet
• Dc: Double crochet
• Inc: Increase
• Dec: Decrease
• Sts: Stitches
• FO: Fasten off
• (…) x: repeat stitches within parentheses … times
• Sk: skip one stitch
• FSC: foundation single crochet (tutorial here)

Technical Notes:

• Crochet in continuous rounds unless otherwise specified
• When filling with polyester stuffing, pull apart each large chunk into many smaller chunks. This ensures an even distribution of firmness.
• To avoid large holes in the crochet fabric, increase tension until the holes cannot be seen, or choose a crochet hook a size down.
• Stuff the head and the body firmly at the openings so that the neck is stable upon completion.

Head/body (in blue yarn)

• Begin Chain 7.
• Round 1 Beginning in the second chain from hook, sc 12 all around the foundation chain. There will be 2 stitches in each chain stitch. For more information on crocheting around a foundation, see here (12 sts)
• Round 2 BLO inc x12 (24 sts)
• Round 3 (sc3, inc) x6 (30 sts)
• Round 4 (sc4, inc) x6 (36 sts)
• Round 5 (sc5, inc) x6 (42 sts)
• Round 6 (sc6, inc) x6 (48 sts)
• Round 7 -10 (4 rounds)  sc all around (48 sts)
• Round 11 (sc7, inc) x6 (54 sts)
• For this pattern, I decided to secure safety eyes with glue at the end so that I could figure out the best placement with the beak. However, if you feel strongly about securing the safety eyes with the plastic backing and don’t mind not being able to see the whole picture, then I would recommend putting the safety eyes here, between rounds 9 and 10.
• Round 12-19 (8 rounds) sc all around (54 sts)
• Round 20 (sc8, inc) x6 (60 sts)
• Round 21-23 (3 rounds) sc all around (60 sts)
• Round 24 BLO sc all around (60 sts)
• Round 25 sc all around (60 sts)
• Round 26 (sc8, dec) x6 (54 sts)
• Round 27 (sc7, dec) x6 (48 sts)
• Round 28 (sc4, dec) x8 (40 sts)
• Round 29 (sc3, dec) x8 (32 sts)
• Begin stuffing.
• Round 30 (sc2, dec) x8 (24 sts)
• Round 31 (sc, dec) x8 (16 sts)
• Round 32 (dec) x8 (8 sts)
• Finish stuffing.
• Round 33: (dec) x4 (4 sts)
• Cut yarn, leaving a short tail. Using a needle, thread the yarn through all 6 stitches in the last round, and pull it tight so the opening closes like a drawstring bag. Finish off.

Flippers (in blue yarn)

• Round 1 sc6 in MR (6 sts)
• Round 2  (sc2, Inc) x2 (8 sts)
• Round 3-4 (2 rounds) sc all around (8 sts)
• Round 5 (sc3, Inc) x2 (10 sts)
• Round 6 sc all around (10 sts)
• Do not stuff. Fold the tube flat, and sew across the top to stitch closed. Finish off and leave a short tail for sewing. Make another one identically.

Beak (in yellow yarn)

• Round 1 sc4 in MR (4 sts)
• Round 2  (sc, Inc) x2 (6 sts)
• Round 3-4 (2 rounds) sc all around (6 sts)
• Stuff very lightly. Invisible finish off and leave a short tail for sewing.

Belly (in white yarn, in joined rounds)

• Begin chain 7
• Round 1 beginning in the second chain from the hook, sc in each chain for 5 stitches. Sc3 in the last chain in the row and then sc 4 in each chain on the way back. Sc 2 in the original chain stitch, and slip stitch to the first stitch. There should be 2 stitches in each chain stitch, with 3 on each end. For more information on crocheting around a foundation, see here. (14 sts)
• Round 2 (BLO) ch, inc x14, slst (28 sts)
• Round 3 ch, (sc3, inc) x7, slst (35 sts)
• Round 4 ch, (sc4, inc) x7, slst (42 sts)
• Invisible finish off, leaving a long tail for sewing.

Bowtie (in orange yarn, in joined rounds)

• Round 1 FSC 12, slst (12 sts)
• Rounds 2-10 (9 rounds) ch, sc all around, slst (12 sts)
• Flatten the tube and sew across both openings to seal it closed. Fold the tube in half lengthwise and sew across the middle only. Leave a short tail and sew to the top of the head, with the middle of the bow at the 4th round from the top. For a video tutorial on this, please click ​here​.

Assembly

• Sew beak to head between 10th and 12th rounds from the top, in the middle of the longer face of the oval body.
• Place eyes just above the beak between the 9th and 10th rounds, with 7 stitches between them
• Sew the white belly with the long side vertical between the 14th and 25th rounds from the top.
• Sew the bow on with the middle at the 4th round from the top on the top right of the penguin’s body.
• Sew the flippers on the right and left sides of the penguin with the top of the flippers at the 13th row from the top.

Bingsoo the Chubby Penguin is all done! I hope you enjoyed crocheting him and found the pattern helpful. I would love to see your finished amigurumi, so share a picture on Instagram with me by using the #littleworldofwhimsy and tagging me @littleworldofwhimsy. Once again, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out to me with a direct message on Instagram or through email at littleworldofwhimsy@gmail.com. Happy crocheting! ♥