Turtwig is the pale-green, yellow, and brown turtle with a sapling growing out of his head. He’s the Pokemon gen 4 grass starter. I designed this Trutwig fleece hat for Pokemon Go’s September 2019 Community Day. If you’d like to make your own, check out the resources below.
Patterns
The PDF pattern is multi-page and designed for printing on US Letter sized paper. Larger pattern pieces may be split across pages. Use the cut marks in the corners of the pages to help you cut away the print margin and then tape the pieces together.
The SVG pattern is arranged in a continuous sheet for easier editing.
Materials
The fleece list includes particular colors and vendors I used to make the photographed hat. You are free to substitute any color and vendor of your liking.
Fleece
- Pico Textiles Anti-Pill Fleece – Mint
- Pico Textiles Anti-Pill Fleece – Kelly Green
- Pico Textiles Anti-Pill Fleece – Dark Camel
- Joann Fabric Anti-Pill Fleece – Pale Banana†
The Pico Textiles fleece is a fairly thin lightweight fleece, and the Joann anti-pill is a medium-weight fleece. Note that Joann has discontinued their original line of anti-pill fleece and replaced it with a plush variant, which is even thicker and with differing texture. Pico Textiles Butter Yellow would be a close color substitution.
Pale Banana might be a little lighter than I’d like, so Joann’s Daffodil or Pico’s Canary might make good choices here.
Flock
- StripFlock – Lemon
- StripFlock – White
- StripFlock – Black
StripFlock is a fuzzy iron-on vinyl made by Siser, but you can use sheets from any vendor if you can find them. Flock is used for facial features like eyes.
Gluing or sewing craft felt or fleece layers is an option that can be pursued in place of flock, but flock will provide the cleanest finish.
Other
- Poly-fil
Stuffing the stem with a small amount of poly-fil will help keep Turtwig’s sapling from falling over, but this is optional.
Design Notes
- I attempted to incorporate all of Turtwig’s jaw line into the band portion of the hat, which makes the overall build cleaner.
- This hat uses a relatively unusual 5-panel crown. This is mostly because I saw 5 “points” in the brown “roots” at the top of Turtwig’s head in the Pokemon Go model. This also means the stem will be sewn into the hat with a bend, which should further help keep it standing upright.
Build Notes
- Sewing the upper and lower outer band pieces together is a pain. This job is better for pins than clips. Use lots of pins.
- Sewing the crown tips to their bases is also a pain, but not as bad as the band.
- Once the outer band and panels are sewn, make several cuts in the seam allowance in the back, as they will either be bunched or pulling tight. You want them to lay as flat as possible when they’re sandwiched inside the band.
- When sewing the sapling, be mindful that the leaves must be stuffed into the tight space of the stem (you’re sewing inside-out), so don’t accidentally sew over the leaves when sewing the stem.
- Assemble the crown into a section of 3 panels and section of 2 panels. Place the sewn sapling in the middle, then combine the two sections in one pass.
- When sewing the crown to the band, one of the 5 panels should be centered over the front of the band, and a panel seam should line up with the band seam in the back.
Did you make your own hat with these designs? Share it with me on Twitter or Instagram!