This is a simple male and female doll body crochet pattern, and can be used to make any character you like! As you can see, I've made quite a few over the years. This pattern assumes a knowledge of single crochet, double crochet, half double crochet, back/front loop only, and increases and decreases. I used magic rings for starting all of my circle rounds and usually use invisible decreases, both of which can be YouTube'd if you're not familiar with them.

Have fun and get creative!

Supplies

You will need:

Worsted weight yarn (I like the cheap Red Heart the best, it's good and stiff)
Some polyfill stuffing
A size G crochet hook (Susan Bates is my preferred)
Two 9mm or bigger safety eyes
A tapestry needle to sew everything together
Optional, some wire for the arms so they can be posed

Gauge is not important, but about a G hook will give you tight enough of a gauge to not have any major holes in your work. Instructions written (in parenthesis) are meant to be repeat the stated number of times or until the end of the round. Stitch count is given at the end of most rows in parenthesis. (6 etc).

Step 1: Pattern: Legs

In my notes, I refer to the Mother 3 characters as examples of how I made outfits/color changes/modifications. If you are not familiar with these characters, their names are in order: Lucas (the blonde boy), Duster (tall brown hair man), and Kumatora (pink haired girl). (And Boney the dog, though he's a separate pattern!).

Legs:
Ch 5

1) sc 3, sc 3 in last st. On other side of starting ch, repeat (sc 3 across, sc 3 in last) (12 sts total)

2) (sc 3, sc 2 in last three sts) twice (18)

3) In BLO, sc 5, sc dec over next three sts (the toe), sc 6,sc dec (over 2), sc in last (15)

4) Sc dec over the centermost three sts of the toe, sc rest of the way around (13)

5) Sc dec over the centermost three sts of toe, sc dec (over two) in the center of the heel, and sc the rest (10)

6 – 9, 10, or 11) sc around four, five, or six times around depending on how tall you want your doll to be -end off, leaving long tail to sew leg to body

Notes for legs: You can make all sorts of shoes with this pattern! Lucas (the little blonde haired boy with sneakers) is a good example of this. His shoes use yellow for the sole (the first two round) and is carried up to the toe on round three— the decrease over three and the single crochet before and after it are done in yellow. Round 5 is where the shoes end, so there is a round of slip stitch in yellow, and then round 6 is done with white to make socks. (I also gave the socks a folded-down look by slip stitching around once more with white in the front loops of round 6.) For pants that come down further over the shoes like Duster (the man with the blue shirt and red pants), I switched colors on round 5, a round before the shoe ends. Kumatora (the woman with the pink hair) is the opposite, and I did not switch colors until round 7 to give her boots. Duster is tall, and has 11 rounds on his legs (and his left leg is a little gimpy!). Lucas has 10, which is a good middle height. Kumatora has 9, because the woman body is one round bigger than the male body. Boney (the dog) uses this same pattern for his legs, too! Round 3 is done through BOTH loops, not BLO, and his legs have 8 rounds total. IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not use invisible decreases here, they look bad. Just normal ones are fine.

Step 2: Pattern: Arms

Arms:

Make a magic ring

1) sc 6 in ring and pull shut

2) sc 2 in each st around (12)

3) I hate rounds like this, they look terrible and confusing when written— (sc 2 in next st, and then sc in next 2 sts) around (so basically increase 4 sts evenly) (16)

4) Sc dec, sc 2 around (dec 4 evenly) (12)

5) Sc dec, sc around (dec 4 evenly) (8)

6-11) sc around -end off, leaving a long tail to sew arm to body.

Notes on arms: This doll is tiny, so holes will show! When I say make a magic ring, that means make a magic ring. Other methods of starting a round always give me holes. Arms can be made longer or shorter depending on what you want, and cuffs for sleeves (long or short) can be accomplished with a round of sl st of your new color in FLO and then sc around in BLO. My favorite trick for nice color changes is this: slip st around with your new color in FLO, and then sc around in the back loops of the slip stitches you just made, NOT the back loops of the previous round.

Step 3: Pattern: Body

Male Body:

Make a magic ring

1) sc 8 in ring (8)

2) sc 2 in each st around (16)

3) (sc 2 in next st, sc 3) around (inc 4 evenly) (20)

4-5) sc around (twice)

6-11) sc dec twice randomly and sc the rest of the way around (18) (16) (14) (12) (10) (8) -end off

Female Body:

-Repeat rounds 1 through 8 of the male body (you’ll have 14 sts left)

9) sc dec, sc 3, (hdc 2, dc, hdc 2) all in next st, sc 2, (hdc 2, dc, hdc 2) all in next st, sc 3, sc dec in last two (20)

10) sc 3, sc dec over 2, sc dec over 3, sc dec over 2, sc dec over 2, sc dec over 3, sc dec over 2, sc 3 (12)

11) sc dec over the 3 centermost sts of the chest, and sc the rest of the way around (10)

12) sc dec twice randomly, sc rest of the way around (8)

Notes on body: The female body is the same as the male, but has boobs. ^_^ This makes it a round taller, and that round is full of hdc and dc which will make it even taller. You could omit round 5 to fix this, I guess. Also DO NOT USE invisible decreases on round 10! They look bad! (Anywhere else is fair game, though.) Amusing note: if you make rounds 1-5 and 9-10 of the female body a different color than the skin, it looks like underwear and a bra. ^__^ I gave Kumatora underwear because she has a dress, but I hadn’t cut the white yarn yet when I got to round 9… This idea can be used to make a halter top. Color changes from pants to shirt should be at round 6. You can adjust how high your waistband is by making this color change sooner or later. Duster has an extra half of a round of sc to give him an uneven waistband (like his sprite does when standing—I assume he’s favoring his bad leg?) AND a round of sl st in brown (with one yellow sl st in the center) to make a belt and buckle. This can be done in the front loops of round 6 or can be done by surface chaining, if you know what that is. (The white zig-zag on his shirt is also done by surface chaining.) Kumatora’s dress is just like her body. I started with a ring of… 30, maybe? And decreased randomly for eight rows, and then repeated rounds 9-12 of the female body. Her hood is… uh… ( magic ring, sc 8 in ring, 16, 24, sc around, 32, sc around twice), and it’s attached to the back of the dress and there’s a round of light blue sc around neck of dress and hood. I also added a round of sl st in light blue at the bottom hem of the dress.

Step 4: Pattern: Head

Head:

Make a magic ring

1) sc 8 in ring and pull shut (8)

2) sc 2 in each st around (12)

3) (sc 2 in next, sc) around (24)

4) (sc 2 in next st, and then sc in next 2 sts) around (so basically increase 4 sts evenly) (32)

5) (sc 2 in next, sc 7) around (36)

6-10) sc around (five times total)

11) sc dec 4 times randomly (32)

12) sc dec eight times (24)

13) sc dec eight times (16)

14) sc dec around (8)

-end off, leaving tail for sewing head to body

Notes for head: This pattern will give you a nice, round head. To make it even rounder, add another row of sc in the middle. Some heads, however, are not round. Duster has a more elongated triangle shape. To do this, start with the same number of increases, sc around… oh… twice instead of five, and then start a gradual decrease. I didn’t write it down, but try to end up with 16 sts at the end of round 15, so that round 16 is the same (sc dec around). Hair can be done any which way. I like to crochet a separate hair piece that sews onto the head, but fringe hair is another option. There are some neat tutorials for this around on the internet. Make sure you have all the pieces of the head done (ears, eyes, hair, etc) before you sew the head onto the body. It just makes life easier.

Ears:

Make a magic ring sc 4 in ring and pull shut

-end off, leaving tail to sew ear to head