Huggy Monster Pillow is a really simple project I whipped up as a child-friendly toy to donate to my local hospital.
I wanted to create a pattern that is good to make for the crocheter, using simple shapes stitched together, and also making good use of yarn scraps. The design is not remarkably unique – it’s just a rectangle in a couple of colours, folded over a mini pillow and then decorated with simple circles for eyes and two HDC chains as arms. It is fast to make, uses leftover yarn, and won’t break the bank when making a lot of them.

Note: this is a really basic pattern but inspired by many clever crochet designers who have come up with more creative pillow options. I also noticed while developing the pattern that there are a lot of paid patterns using AI generated content around crochet animal pillows on other platforms. My design is very basic, free, and really for the charity use I have . I leave it to you to add your own splash of creativity and hope AI farmers remember we create and share for the greater human good.

Materials required

• 4mm and 4.5mm crochet hooks (or the correct hook to suite your yarn)
• 6mm crochet hook (for arms)
• DK (8 ply) weight yarns in 2 main colours  - I use about 50g of main colour and less of secondary colour, and scraps of black and white for eyes
• sewn mini pillows (see mini-pillow section below). You need basic sewing machine tools
• Darning needle for sewing in ends
• Stitch marker (optional)

You can choose to make mini pillows from fabric and fill by cutting, sewing a filling 2 squares of square throw pillow and recycle it. My local department stores (Big W and Kmart) sell a 42cm square pillow for $3.75. I cut the pillow through the front fabric half way along the surface at 21cm. I then pulled out the fill and set aside. I cut the back fabric of the pillow along the same line and then folded and cut each half in half again to make 4 pieces of the old pillow case. I turned all pieces to wrong sides out.
I used my overlocker and sewing machine to seal up the open sides, leaving a small stuffing hole in each. I then replaced the stuffing evenly between the pillows and whip stitched the holes closed.
In this way, I have 4 mini pillows each about 20cm roughly square of a total cost of less then $1 per pillow.