These baby turtles are made using leftover or sample motifs from making other Heidi-critters. I have created this as a separate project to document the instructions I use to make them. These instructions assume a knowledge of crocheting in the round (rounds not joined) and how to do an invisible decrease.

(FYI: The Modified Baby Turtle pattern contains slightly different instructions for the head, legs and shell border that produce a baby turtle that stands up a bit more.)

Baby Turtle Body:
Create 2 complete hexagon motifs. One for the belly (I usually use a solid color) and one for the back. On the “back” motif, crochet an additional round of dc, but only do 1 dc in each corner. This will cause the motif to “cup” and give it some height (in comparison to the belly motif). At the end of the additional round do NOT finish off. With the back and belly motifs together (wrong sides together with the right side of the back motif facing you), join them together by crocheting a round of sc. Before you reach the end of the round, stuff the body to your liking.

Join a contrasting color to the joining sc round with a slip stitch and create the shell ruffle: (ch 3, dc) in the same stitch, skip 1 sc, sl st in the next sc around.

Baby Turtle Legs: Make 4
Rnd 1: 6 sc in a “magic ring”.
Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc around (12 sc)
Rnd 3: 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in the next (18 sc)
Rnds 4-6: sc in each sc around (18 sc)
Rnd 7: dec sc over next 2 sc, sc in the next sc (12 sc)
Rnd 8-9: sc in each sc around (12 sc)
Stuff with polyfil at this point.
Rnd 10: dec sc over next 2 sc, sc in the next sc (8 sc)
Rnd 11: sc in each sc around (8 sc).

Press opening flat with your fingers and close the 2 sides with 3 sc across the opening. Leave a long tail for sewing to the body.

Baby Turtle Head:
Rnd 1: 6 sc in a “magic ring”.
Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc around (12 sc)
Rnd 3: 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in the next (18 sc)
Rnds 4-5: sc in each sc around (18 sc)
Rnd 6: 2 sc in the next sc, 1 sc in each of the next 2 sc (24 sc)
Rnd 7: sc in each sc around (24 sc)
Rnd 8: dec sc over the next 2 sc, 1 sc in each of the next 2 sc (18 sc)
Rnd 9-10: sc in each sc around (18 sc)
Rnd 11: dec sc over the next 2 sc, 1 sc in the next sc (12 sc)
Rnd 12-14: sc in each sc around (12 sc).

Stuff and close the opening in the same manner as the legs, but will need 5 closing sc instead of just 3. Leave a long tail for sewing. Using my photos as a guide, sew the legs and head to the body and make the little eyes (I used simple french knots) to indent the head a bit.

Helpful Resources:
You can find a free PDF version of this pattern at the following link (thanks to gontcho1 for finding this and bringing it to my attention):
https://stylesidea.com/baby-crochet-turtles/

Thanks to my good friend Saskia, there is now a German translation for this pattern:
Baby Turtle pattern in German

Also, here’s a helpful video by Stitchin’ Stacy. It’s a larger version of the baby turtle that uses the “granny-square” version of the African Flower motif:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5NAcs31aQs