Help with creating a pattern

[Iryna]

Hello, I saw this beautiful Mary and Jesus amigurumi that I would like to crochet for a Christmas gift (see the picture). I found it on Pinterest but I cant find the pattern anywhere. I have an idea how to crochet Mary but I need help with baby Jesus. Specifically how to crochet his middle body (white cloth) Could somebody help me out?

[Granny Square]

It looks like it might be a tiny raglan top.

I drew the below diagram a while ago to explain a generic raglan cardigan, just imagine the fronts are joined as 1 piece and look just like the back.

Start at the center, chain a neckline, join in a circle.  

Work around the circle, increasing at the 4 red lines.  *

When you get to the spot where the outer perimeter of the front and the back is the desired chest diameter (and hopefully the edge of the shoulder part is the desired sleeve diameter at the same time ), you will stop increasing but do something different at the increase points.  Work across the front, make a few chains (blue line in the diagram -for your little baby maybe 1 or 2 chains), then skip all of the arm/shoulder, continue stitching across the back (the part you skipped will be an odd loop of fabric - this is the armhole), make the underarm chain, skip the armhole as before, and join to where you started this round.

The following round is worked across the front, back, and the underarm chains.  The sleeves/armholes will look like a cap sleeve at this point.  When the baby's dress is as as long ans you want (you'll want to add some increases here and there so it's more of an A-line, not just a tube perhaps), you reattach the thread to the armholes and add some rounds to the sleeves.  See last paragraph--I think the gown hem looks like it should not be bigger than the legs.

* I don't know if there is a formula to figure arm diameter proportion to body size; I know there are raglan sweater calculators out there but they're for people, not tiny figures like this.  Measuring a couple of my own tops it looks like if the measurement of the armhole was about 40% of the front or back (or 20% of the whole chest if you want to look at it that way)  it would be reasonable.

I hope this isn't confusing; trust me, it's a lot easier to DO than to read through.  When I first did this, it made me think of a granny square because the increases sort of make 'corners' - it  will look more rectangular than my diagram.

There are a lot of video tutorials out there if you search 'how to crochet a raglan sweater' to help you visualize this.

I also think if I were making this, I'd make the head top down to the point of the neckline, attach the white and make the gown, attach the body color and work the arms at the end of the sleeves (in the back loop, so the sleeves stand out a tiny bit from the arms), stuff the arms, make the legs, stuff them, stuff the gown body and sew the legs on.  The  photo looks like the gown fits fairly snugly around the legs, so they might also have been crocheted on to the edge (back loop) of the gown, which would work if the legs were made toe up.

If you were thinking of making a 'whole baby' and dressing it, I think you're going to have to leave the dress open in the back, at least a bit past the armholes.

[Iryna]

Thanks so much!!!! Huge help!😊