DIY crochet giant watermelon pillow

So I'm sure everyone knows by now how obsessed I am with watermelons. And one day a few weeks back, whilst crocheting some watermelon bunting I will be sharing very soon, I decided that what I need in my life right now is a gigantic watermelon pillow. I couldn't find a pattern online for the idea I had in my head, and so I figured WHY NOT MAKE MY OWN?! Real casual, just like that. Even though I have never made my own crochet pattern before, and don't really understand other people's crochet patterns.

But I gave it a go, and it only went and turned out super awesome! So I figured I should share it with you lovely lot, along with a little tutorial, so you can all have your own giant snuggly watermelon cushion. (please ignore how useless I am at explaining things - let me know if you have any problems or queries and I shall do my best to help!)

For my watermelon I used Carol Simply Soft yarn and a 4mm hook, but you can use any yarn, and use an appropriate sized hook.

First up you need to make a giant circle, rather like the one in the photo above. You can make the circle as big or as small as you like, depending how big you want the finished cushion to be. Also, feel free to make more/less pink rounds, more/less white rounds, and more/less green rounds, if you'd like the proportions to be different. But here is how I made the circle above; (written in US terms)

start with a magic circle.
rnd 1: ch 3, 11 dc into the circle, sl st to join
rnd 2: ch 3, 1 dc into next stitch, 2 dc into each other rest of the stitches. sl st to join.
rnd 3: ch 3, 2 dc into next stitch, (dc in next stitch, 2 dc in next stitch) - repeat ( ) around, and join with a sl st.
rnd 4: ch 3, dc in next stitch, (2 dc in next stitch, dc in next two stitches) - repeat ( ) around, and join with a sl st.
rnd 5: ch 3, dc in next two stitches, (2 dc in next stitch, dc in next three stitches) - repeat ( ) around, and join with a sl st.

Continue the above pattern of increasing the number of stitches you do a single dc in each round. So for round 6 you will do 2 dc, then dc in next four stitches, and for round 7 you will do 2 dc, then dc in next five stitches. Remember to ch 3 to start (this counts as your first dc) and always end by joining with a sl st.

When you have enough rounds of pink, simply join the white yarn and continue the same pattern. Them, when you have done enough rounds of white, switch to the green. For my large cushion I did 23 rounds of pink, 2 rounds of white, and 6 rounds of green. For the mini watermelon plush I did 7 rounds of pink, 1 round of white, and 2 rounds of green. Voila! You should have a giant round circle. Now is a good time to weave in all those ends.

The next step is to fold your circle in half, as shown above. You could at this stage simply join the edges and add a bit of polyfill and be finished. However I wanted my watermelon to be more 3D so I realised I needed to add a gusset to it. To do this is marked (with stitch markers) a set number of stitches from the fold on both sides of my folded watermelon. The number of stitches will affect how wide or narrow your gusset is. I left 12 stitches on each side - remember you need to mark it on both halves of the folded watermelon, and both sides (you should use 4 stitch markers in total.)

To create the gusset, open the folded watermelon out, with right side facing up. Starting in the stitch AFTER where your stitch marker is, attach the green yarn to the back loops of the stitch and chain 3. Then work a dc in the back loops ONLY of each stitch, until you reach the stitch marker on the opposite side of the watermelon. Ch 3, turn your work, and go back and dc in each stitch you have just done (in both loops this time.) Repeat until you have four rows of dc. The number of rows you need to crochet will depend on how many stitches you left for your gusset. I work on the basis of working one row of dc for every 3 stitches I left for the gusset. As I left 12 stitches, I need four rows of dc.

Now repeat this  process on the other side of the watermelon circle, until you have something that resembles the photo below. As you can see there is a gap between the two stitch markers for our gusset on either side (the gap here measures 24 stitches, as we left a 12 stitch gusset when it was folded in half.)

We now want to assemble our cushion, starting with the sides to create our gusset. For this I use a large tapestry needle, and green yarn. Start by sewing together the two short ends to the gap (you can see a close up of these in the photo above.) Make sure the right side of the crochet is facing out. It should now look like the photo below on either end, with a long opening running around the curved edge. Start to sew up this opening too, stuffing the watermelon with polyfill as you go until it's as stuffed as you like.

TA DAHHHH! You should have yourself a giant squishy watermelon slice rather like the one in the photo below! And you can see the miniature plushie version I made - I even gave it a little face and glittery cheeks! The miniature version is made in exactly the same way, just with fewer rounds and a smaller gusset. SIMPLES. You can see the size difference between the big and the small - I might need to make an inbetween size too now as a portable cushion. Plus loads of my friends have already requested watermelon cushions for Christmas. Eeeep, best get crocheting.

Do let me know if you decide to make yourself a watermelon pillow - I'd love to see photos! Feel free to share my pattern and pics, but ALWAYS link back to my blog or tag me on social media (I'm @ladybirdlikes on most things.)