Jun
okay so minions are actually way easier than they look
I made my first one in spring 2022 when my sister’s kid wouldn’t stop begging for one and honestly it turned out pretty decent even though I had no idea what I was doing. The basic shape is just a cylinder which like, that’s the easiest thing to crochet once you get the hang of working in the round.
So you’re gonna start with yellow yarn obviously. I used Red Heart Super Saver in Bright Yellow because it was cheap and I had a bunch left over from this blanket project I never finished. Some people get all fancy with the expensive stuff but honestly for a minion the cheap acrylic works fine and it’s easier to wash if a kid’s gonna drag it everywhere.
The Body Part
Start with a magic ring. If you don’t know how to do that just look it up real quick because it’s gonna make your life so much easier than the chain method. Do like 6 single crochets into the ring, pull it tight. Then you’re increasing every round for maybe 4-5 rounds until you get the width you want. I usually do it until it’s about 3 inches across but you can make them whatever size.
The pattern I sorta followed said to increase 6 stitches per round evenly spaced so like:
- Round 1: 6 sc in magic ring
- Round 2: 2 sc in each stitch (12 total)
- Round 3: *sc, 2 sc in next* repeat around (18 total)
- Round 4: *sc in 2, 2 sc in next* repeat (24 total)
- Round 5: *sc in 3, 2 sc in next* repeat (30 total)
You can keep going if you want a fatter minion. Then just crochet straight without increasing for like I dunno, 15-20 rounds? Until it looks tall enough. Mine was probably about 6 inches tall total but I wasn’t really measuring anything precisely.
One thing that really annoyed me was stuffing it evenly because the polyfil always gets lumpy in weird spots and you have to keep smooshing it around. I was watching Stranger Things at the time and kept having to pause to fix the stupid lumps.
The Bottom and Decreasing
When you’re ready to close it up you gotta start decreasing. This is basically the opposite of increasing so you’re doing invisible decreases (or regular decreases if you don’t care that much). I did the same pattern backwards:
- *sc in 3, decrease* around
- *sc in 2, decrease* around
- keep going til it’s almost closed
Stuff it more as you go because once that hole gets too small you can’t add more stuffing. Then finish closing it up and weave in the end.
the overalls situation
Okay so the overalls are what make it actually look like a minion and not just a yellow blob. I used some dark blue yarn, I think it was Caron Simply Soft in Ocean but honestly any dark blue works. You’re basically making a rectangle that wraps around the bottom part of the body.
Chain enough to go around like the bottom third of your minion. For mine it was about 30 chains I think? Then just single crochet back and forth in rows until you have a rectangle that’s tall enough to cover the area you want. Maybe 8-10 rows depending.
The straps are just chains. Make two chains that are long enough to go over the shoulders and sew them onto the top of the overalls rectangle. I did mine about 15 chains each. Some people do actual crocheted straps that are wider but like, chains work fine and it’s faster.
Sew or hot glue the overalls onto the body. I used hot glue because I’m impatient and sewing takes forever. The pocket is just a tiny square you make separately and attach. Chain like 5, then do 4-5 rows of sc, attach it to the front of the overalls. Done.
Arms and Legs
These are basically tiny cylinders. Start with black yarn for the gloves and boots. Magic ring with 4 or 5 sc, then just crochet straight for like 3-4 rounds. Switch to yellow for the arms or blue for the legs (if you’re doing the overalls style where the legs show, otherwise you can skip this part or— wait actually most minions have the overalls cover everything so maybe just do short black boots).
I always make the arms and legs different lengths by accident and then have to frog one and redo it which is super annoying. Try to count your rounds I guess.
For arms: after the black glove part, switch to yellow and crochet for like 8-10 more rounds. Don’t stuff them too much or they get weird and stiff. Just a little stuffing so they hold shape but stay floppy.
For legs: black boots for like 3-4 rounds, then blue for the overalls part, another 6-8 rounds maybe. Again light stuffing.
Attach them wherever they look right. I just eyeball it and sew them on with yarn and a tapestry needle. The arms go on the sides obviously and angle them however you want. Legs at the bottom.
the goggle thing that everyone messes up
Okay so the goggles are literally what makes it recognizable as a minion and they’re also the most tedious part. You need gray or silver yarn for the strap, black for the goggle frames, and white for the eye part.
First make the strap. Chain enough to go around the whole head, then sc back across. That’s it. Set it aside.
For the actual goggle frames you’re making circles. I used black yarn and did magic ring with 6 sc, then increased one round to 12 sc. That’s usually big enough but you can make them bigger if you want. Make two of these obviously because two eyes.
The white eye part is another circle but smaller. Magic ring with 6 sc, maybe increase to 9 or don’t increase at all if you want tiny eyes. I used white yarn, some cheap brand from Walmart I think. Make two.
Sew or glue the white circles onto the black circles. Then attach both goggle pieces to the gray strap. The strap goes around the head and you position the goggles wherever they look right on the face. I usually put them slightly toward the top.
For one-eyed minions just make one goggle in the center of the strap. Way easier honestly.
The actual eyeball part I just used black felt circles that I cut out and glued on, then smaller white felt for the shine spot. You could embroider them or use safety eyes but felt is faster. My cat kept trying to steal the felt pieces while I was working which was really annoying.
Hair
This is optional but it makes them cuter. Use black yarn and just sew little loops onto the top of the head. Like, thread your needle with black yarn, poke it through the top, make a loop, poke it back through, tie it off. Do that a few times in different spots. Some minions have just one or two hairs, some have more. Whatever.
You can also do the hair by cutting short pieces of yarn and tying them on individually but that takes forever and I don’t have that kind of patience.
mouth and other details
The mouth is usually just embroidered with black yarn. I make like a curved line of backstitches or just a running stitch, doesn’t have to be perfect. Some minions are smiling, some have that weird grin with teeth showing. For teeth I used white embroidery floss and just did a few vertical stitches under the mouth line.
The logo thing on the overalls is usually a G or just some random letter. I skip this half the time because it’s annoying and nobody really notices. But if you want to add it you can embroider it or cut it out of felt.
Sizing Issues and Yarn Weight
I used worsted weight yarn for everything which is the medium thickness stuff. If you use thinner yarn your minion will be smaller, thicker yarn makes it bigger. I tried making one with bulky yarn once and it turned out huge and kinda weird looking but my nephew loved it so whatever.
Hook size matters too I guess. I use a 5mm (H hook) for worsted weight. The tighter your stitches the less stuffing shows through which is good. If your stitches are too loose you’ll see the white polyfil poking through the yellow and it looks bad.
what i would do differently
If I made another one, which I probably will at some point because they’re kinda fun, I’d use safety eyes instead of felt for the eyeballs. The felt ones I glued on started peeling off after the kid played with it for like a week. Safety eyes are more secure.
Also I’d probably use a better method for attaching the limbs because sewing them on with yarn doesn’t hold up great if it’s gonna be used as an actual toy. Maybe sew through the body multiple times or use really strong thread.
The whole thing took me maybe 3-4 hours total? Not counting the times I had to redo stuff because I messed up. Could probably do it faster now that I know what I’m doing.
Yarn Amounts
You don’t need much yarn for one minion. Maybe like 50-75 yards of yellow, 30-40 yards of blue, tiny amounts of black, white, gray. I made three minions from one skein of Red Heart Super Saver in yellow so they’re pretty economical.
Keep your scraps because you’ll need little bits for details and it’s annoying to buy a whole new skein just for like the pocket or the hair.
variations you can try
Girl minions have the same basic pattern but you add yarn hair instead of the short black strands. Just cut a bunch of yellow or brown yarn pieces and attach them to make it look longer. Some people braid it or put it in ponytails with little ribbons.
You can also make different expressions by changing the mouth shape or eye position. Angry minions have the eyebrows which are just black yarn stitched in a V shape above the goggles.
Different outfit colors too if you want, like some wear purple overalls or whatever. I’ve seen people make superhero versions with little capes attached which is actually pretty cute.
The Egyptian minion has that striped headpiece thing which you’d make separately and attach but I haven’t tried that one yet. Seems complicated.
Common Problems
The body rolling around or not sitting flat is annoying. You can either make a flat bottom by doing more decreases at the end, or just accept that it’s gonna tip over. Adding weight at the bottom helps, like put some poly pellets in there before you close it up.
If your increases aren’t even you’ll get a wonky shape. Just frog it and start over, it’s not worth trying to fix once it’s messed up.
Running out of yellow yarn halfway through is the worst. Always have more than you think you need because there’s nothing more annoying than having to stop and go buy more yarn when you’re almost done.
The goggles sliding around before you attach them permanently is also frustrating. Use pins to hold everything in place before you commit to sewing or gluing.
Anyway that’s basically how you make a minion. They’re good beginner projects because the shape is simple and if you mess up the proportions a bit it still looks like a minion. Kids don’t care if it’s perfect they just want the yellow guy from the movie.
