Kawaii Crochet Garden Book Review

Kawaii Crochet Garden by Melissa Bradley-Vatcher is a beautiful book filled with adorable projects that are guaranteed to make you smile! Today I will be sharing my thoughts and impressions about the book. I even made a couple of projects from the patterns and will share those photos at the end! Plus, I will provide a special link below where you can get a FREE pattern from Melissa in her signature style.

Thank you to David & Charles Publishing for giving permission to share the photos included here along with sponsoring a giveaway for my newsletter subscribers. 🙂

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Cutsie Flower Projects that Will Never Wilt or Die!

One day I was browsing through the crochet books in Barnes & Noble and I came across Kawaii Crochet Garden. The cute faces on all of the flower projects caught my attention immediately. I loved the bright colors and clean designs. The sunflower was one of my favorites and it reminded me of my Uncle Rod – he loves sunflowers and has tried to grow them every year with no success. I thought I could make him one of the Kawaii sunflowers that he could enjoy all year long without worrying if it would survive. 😉 So, I purchased the book and looked forward to sitting down to make him a gift for his birthday! (I’ll share photos of my project below along with some tips for the pattern.)

Overview of the Kawaii Crochet Garden

Kawaii Crochet Garden is a very colorful book that includes “40 Super Cute Amigurimi Patterns for Plants and More.” Kawaii is a Japanese word that means “cute” and “lovable” and often is the art of taking a mundane every day object and giving it personality. (Ex. Adding eyes and a mouth to a milk carton) Amigurimi is another Japanese word for small cute stuffed animals and other objects made with crochet or knitting stitches. The patterns in this book are for a variety of flowers but also other items and creatures that you would find in a garden, such as: a watering can, caterpillar, trowel, and ladybug to name a few. And they all have the signature eyes and mouth that makes them super cute!

Melissa Bradley-Vatcher – creator of these adorable flower projects

Melissa Bradley-Vatcher has a degree in interior design and is a certified florist so she knows how to make pretty things with flowers! You can find even more of her beautiful and cute patterns in her Etsy Shop, Yarn Blossom Boutique, and see several photos on her Instagram account here. She wrote another book, Kawaii Crochet, filled with bunches of adorable projects that you can purchase here. And coming up later this year Melissa will be publishing another book called, Kawaii Crochet Christmas! Click here to see some photos and to pre-order.

Stitches and Yarns Used

Most of the stitches used in these patterns are single crochet. This is one of the most fundamental stitches in crocheting. For several of the petals and flowers other taller stitches are used (half double crochet and double crochet). And to create all the different shapes you’ll need to know how to work increases and decreases in single crochet – it’s easy to do and Melissa provides several pages at the end of the book with very clear explanations, photos and drawings to help with these stitches and many others. All projects are crocheted with cotton yarn by Paintbox which comes in a wide variety of bright colors. Projects are either made in Aran (worsted) or DK (light worsted) weights and use 3.5mm and 2.5mm crochet hooks.

Layout and Colors of Kawaii Crochet Garden

I love the layout and colors of Kawaii Crochet Garden! Each chapter features projects grouped by the same color and each pattern is written with a clear easy-to-read font across multiple pages. Information about the materials, measurements and gauge are included at the beginning of each pattern in a colored box along with several cute tips, quotes and jokes throughout. The photos are excellent showing all sides of each project and allowing you to easily see each detail. Plus, each page includes black and white Kawaii-style drawings that add another layer of cuteness! Overall, it is a great book to have in your library and spend time looking through.

My Favorite Projects

My favorite flower projects are the sunflower, daisy, forget-me-not and water lily. Some of the flowers have the eyes and mouth on them and some others have the eyes and mouth on the pot or vase! So creative! I also love the watering can, caterpillar and worm. These would make great gifts for a gardener or someone who loves flowers.

My Flower Projects from Kawaii Crochet Garden

As I mentioned before, I first made the sunflower project for my Uncle Rod. I used mostly Sinfonia yarn by Omega. This is a great cotton yarn that comes in so many wonderful colors. I had a lot in my stash and decided to use 2 shades of yellow, green, light tan and light blue. I think the yarn I used is a little thicker than what was recommended but everything turned out great. Most of the pattern was in single crochet for all of the petals, the flower center and the pot. All of the petals were quick and after a few I had the pattern memorized so I could crank out several in one sitting.

Notes about Working on These Projects

Melissa wrote all the patterns in a perfect sequence so you finish each part in the best order. Much of these projects are worked in the round so using a stitch marker is a must! This is so you can keep track of where each round begins and stay on track with the pattern stitches and numbers. I also recommend having a pen nearby so you can write down tally marks for each round as you complete them. When you work rounds like this (in a spiral) it can be hard to count them later. When it came time to sew the petals to the round center, I first pinned them all in place so I was sure to have them spaced evenly. I found that once the top layer of petals was in place, I could easily put each petal of the second layer in between the ones of the top layer.

I LOVE how Melissa recommends using a hot glue gun! I often hot glue my crochet projects (that are not wearables and most likely won’t need to be washed) because it is quick and looks best. So, I used a little hot glue to secure the leaves and bottom petals to the pot for stability. You will need to use some wire inside the flower stem to help it stand up like a real flower. I also decided to use a small bag of plastic pellets in the bottom of the pot to add some weight and stability.

As you can see, I added a little crocheted heart to the front of the pot with hot glue. I added some tan felt behind the face center to help secure the safety eyes (like in this technique here) and to cover some of the gaps that were between the stitches. This way you can’t see the white polyester stuffing inside.

And since keychains are so popular right now and my mom loves daisies, I crocheted just the flower part of the daisy project and added a swivel clasp. This was really quick to crochet and she loved the end result!

Special Arts and Crafts Books Hub by David & Charles Publishing

David & Charles Publishing and Search Press have created a wonderful website called, “Bookmarked” where you can find info, images and extras for several of their crafty publications. Some of the extras are free to anyone and others are free if you sign-up for a FREE account – easy peasy!

Click here to see the current FREE Kawaii patterns by Melissa Bradley-Vatcher. So cute!

Wonderful and Fun Book – Kawaii Crochet Garden!

Kawaii Crochet Garden is a wonderful book filled with fun and super cute projects! I highly recommend purchasing this book and making some projects from it. They make great gifts that will bring your family and friends much joy and many smiles!

You can purchase this book here.

And if you love flower-themed crochet projects, check out some of my designs here.

You can find all of my FREE crochet patterns here.

Thank you for stopping by! Happy crocheting!

Jennifer

Copyright – Jennifer E Ryan- www.celticknotcrochet.com- all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Special thanks to Melissa Bradley-Vatcher and David and Charles Ltd. for giving permission to use the photos posted in this post.