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How I made little Haarlep

A few days ago I posted about my latest finished crochet project for my good friend @tavyliasin, and I wanted to share how I made them! This is for people who would also like to make a little Haarlep (Raphael, Karlach, or any other character with horns for that matter), those who are curious how I did it, and I just love to yap about my projects. When I started this project I had only been crocheting for about 8 months, and it really pushed me to step out of my comfort zone, try new things, and learn a whole lot. I took the time to explore, experiment, and try again if needed. And man, did I learn from little Haarlep.

Note that this isn't a tutorial; I have made mistakes, oversights, and stumbled against problems. I will try my best to list these here, but if you have any questions about the listed patterns I advise you to head over to the linked etsy store to ask the creator of said pattern. But if you have any questions specifically regarding this project I'll try my best to answer them as best as I can. There are also some parts of little Haarlep where I didn't use a pattern at all, and either freehanded it, or did a load of guesswork.

Now, let's get started!

Used patterns:

Body: Doll base Amigurumi Body Version 3 by TheLoftyLoop

Wings: Kawaii Bat by ZeroGravityCrochet (I have also used this pattern for my Batstarion plushie)

Horns: Horns (3 sizes) by KnottedLovebymima

Used Materials:

Body: Katia Bambi #312 (3x)

Hair: Twister Solid XL Black #105 (1x)

I had bought the yarn for the hair and horns in a local yarn shop, and have thrown away the labels a long time ago. Once I have found them again I will list them here as well.

Polymer stuffing

PLA filament (optional)

Small chains which were part of a jewelry repair kit.

Soft silver RVS rings, 1,5 x 7,0 millimeters

Epoxy Resin (optional)

Gold and orange pigment powder

Gold glitter

Red embroidery thread

Used tools:

Crochet needles (3,0 millimeters and 3,5 millimeters)

Knitting markers

Yarn scissor

Yarn needles

Row counter (optional although it literally saved my life)

3d printer (Optional)

Silicone half circle mold

Pliers (x2)

Cutting pliers

Mini hand drill

Instant glue

Tweezers (optional)

Step-by-step guide:

First, I needed to know what the hells I was getting myself into. For that I have used several references on Haarlep. I have used these as a guidelines for the entirety of the project. The screenshots have been provided by @tavyliasin.

Then, I made a list every single part of the doll I needed to make.

Body

Tail

Wings

Horns

Ears

Eyes

Face

Harness

Hair

The body

For the body I have used the 3,5 millimeter crochet needle because I wanted the stitches to be as tight as I could. I had ignored the advised crochet hook size on the label of the yarn because of this. Although I quickly found out that the yarn itself was too large for this pattern as well, resulting in the doll becoming bigger and longer than I initially expected. But this is not necessarily a mistake because that would mean that there would be more to cuddle!

The head ended up being way too long though, so after I finished the body I folded the part of the head that was too long and stitched it on the back of the head.

The Tail

I didn't use a pattern for the tail, instead I made a magic ring with 6 single crochet stitches, and increased the stitch each time I felt like I should make the tail wider. For this I also used the 3,5 mm needle.

The wings

I used my trusty 3,5mm needle for this part as well. I already had a pattern for a bat plushie, which I had used to make the wings. From there I diverged from the pattern, and created a bigger 'spiral' so to speak by adding 3 more rounds.

If you are using this pattern, I diverged from the guide from row 5:

r5.1: 5dc, inc.

r5.2: 6dc, inc.

r5.3: 6dc, inc.

After that I followed the pattern again, and diverted from it once more to add more single crochet stitches to each 'spike' of the wings, making them more bulky and longer.

The ears

I also didn't follow any pattern for the ears, I just made a triangle of single crochets (again, with my 3,5mm needle), and stitched the points of the ears to one another to make them more pointy and give them more depth. Then I attached them on the side of the head with *only* the base of the triangles. This is because I was going to add the hair and horns later on, and I didn't want the ears to get in the way of them.

The eyes.

I worked with resin before, and still had some. I mixed a small amount of epoxy resin with gold and orange pigment powder, and golden glitters. I poured it in a half circle silicone mold I have with various sizes. After it had cured I tested which size I liked the most for the doll, and used those for the eyes.

Next was the application, glueing the eyes directly on the head would be a surefire way for them to detach in the near future. So at first I tried to use these screw eyes by hanging them over the mold as the resin cured, so I could simply sew them in. But that didn't work as the resin swallowed the entirety of the screw, and the thread I hung them over the mold with. The 'eyes' were still semi-transparent even though I used a lot of pigment, so I could easily see the ends of the screws inside the eyes. So this was a failure.

On my second try I didn't mess with the resin as it cured at all, and used even more pigment powder just to be sure it wouldn't be transparent. This time, I used a small hand-drill to create 2 holes on each side of the half-circle, as close to the edge as I could. Then I drilled another 2 holes on the flat side where the end of the first 2 holes ended, making a little tunnel. I took some tweezers and stuffed and pulled the thread through the tunnels until I could pull it through. I tied them on each end, and superglued the knots for extra security.

Once everything was dry I sew the eyes directly on the spots I wanted them to be. But I wasn't too happy with the result, in all honesty...

... So I gave Haarlep some eyelids. Sure, they still look quite bug-eyed, but I decided to trust the process.

The horns (and a nose!)

I had completely forgotten to photograph any of my progress from when I was done with the eyes t'ill the horns were already finished. I had also decided to give Haarlep a little nose (which I made out of a magic circle with 10 single crochets, 2 rows of increases, and 3 rows of decreases).

In the original pattern there are 3 sizes available, and I used size 1 and 2 for the horns on this doll. The yarn I used for this was quite thin, but I made the mistake to use the 3,5 mm needle *again*. Which is why I could see directly through all the stitches, and see all the polymer filling within. I admit that the horns were about my least favourite part of this project, and I was struggling to get through them (no hate to the creator of the pattern at all, as it was a very well-written pattern! I just didn't enjoy making these because of some Morb-problems). So I was not ready to do it all over again. Instead, I noticed I had a lot of yarn I used for the horns left, so I used that as filling so the large holes in each stitch wouldn't be noticeable.

The Hair

Again, I forgot to take any pictures of this process, so I'll have to write down what I did. I used the Twister solid XL yarn for this.

First I gave Haarlep a much-needed hairline to map out where I wanted his hairdo to start and finish. For each 'strand' of hair I repeated one of 2 processes whether I wanted it to curl or not.

(fun fact, the 'curly' hairs are based on a very simple pattern a friend of mine created to make toys for her cat!)

Curls:

Chain (make it as long as you want depending on how long you want it to be, but for this project I used in between 8-15 chains per strand), single crochet in the 2nd chain stitch from the end of your chain. 3 single crochets in every chain (I did this for about 3-6 chain stitches). Than I did a bunch of single crochets in every chain until I reached the end of the chain. Then I put another single crochet in the 2nd chain, and put 1 single crochet per chain stitch until you reach the end, tie and cut your yarn on both ends. I kept about 15-20 centimeters of yarn on the end that's the furthest away from the curl so I could use that to sew the strand of hair directly onto the head.

You can also put 2 single crochets per chain, or more than 3 depending on how curly you want your strand of hair to be.

Straight strand:

Follow the same steps as the curls, but just keep adding single crochets per chain stitch after you've made your chain, and repeat this twice.

I then worked in layers when attaching each strand of hair onto the head, I added one or two rows of "hair" starting from the neckline. Once I sew in those strands I sew about 3-5 centimeters of hair directly onto the head (the point that's the furthest away from the curl/the part of the strand that's attached to the head). This is so if the hair on the doll moves it wouldn't go out of place, and you wouldn't see any bald spots. This way I also wouldn't have to make countless of strands and add too much hair.

I have no idea how I can explain this properly without pictures, so if anyone reading this really wants to know how I did it I'll recreate the steps mentioned above.

I also added some sideburns to give Haarlep's hair a bit more of a finished look. After I was completely done with the hair (checked that I had not left any bald spot unchecked) I attached their ears on their lower horns using a piece of the same yarn I have used for the body.

The Harness

This was arguably my favourite part of this entire project! I really enjoyed making this as I could use several types of materials into this. I wanted to make the harness without having to directly attach it to Haarlep's body, so that it could be tight enough for it to stay attached. Bit first I had to start with the basics.

The undies! I freehanded the underwear as well, which goes as follows:

I started with the front, and made a chain that reached the diameter of Haarlep's body. From there I worked down, adding a single crochet per chain stitch. And at each end of the row I made a decrease. I used knitting markers to attach the underwear on the body as I made it to get as much of an accurate fit as possible. I kept going until I reached the hind, which is where I had to "split" the underwear to accommodate the tail. At first I went to the left, making every row very small until it reached 3/4 of the top of the tail (while making sure it could reach the front side of the underwear). I then made a chain that went around the entire top of the tail, and kept going until I reached the other side of the underwear, and attached my chain on it. I did the same stitching as I did on the other side of the tail, except in reverse until I reached the rest of the underwear. From there I finished up the underwear by securing all sides of the underwear to each other using the same yarn so it would seamlessly fit across the doll's waist.

I have no idea how to write a comprehensive tutorial and/or a pattern. So again, if you don't understand how I did this from the text I wrote please send me a message. I'll draw how I did this instead, and edit it into this post.

Next was the harness itself. I used a chain with a double crochet per chain stitch, and measured the chain against the body as I made it. I started out from the middle (the back strap that divides on the shoulders, to the front of the chest where it splits. I made several different sizes of "straps", always making a pair. I then attached every strap on a chainmail ring (the soft silver RVS rings), and kind of worked my way from there. I opened each ring with 2 pliers, slid on the end of each strap in place, and closed the ring with the pliers again. This was very much a 'trust the process' type of work for me.

If I couldn't secure the strap just yet I held them in place with a knitting marker (see shoulders).

For the shoulder pads I only used a chain to make the straps that go under the arms, and almost followed the same steps as I did when creating the underwear. Start with a chain (except smaller, like 5 or 6 chain stitches), do a round of single crochets, decrease at the ends of the rows, a round of single crochets, etc. Until I got a tiny rounded triangle, which I attached to the shoulder chain.

Next, I wanted to create the spikes that go on top of the shoulder pads. At first I wanted to make the tiniest studs using some embroidery thread. But I recently acquired a 3d printer! And as I already was using metal in the harness, I wanted those studs to match.

So I created a simple design on Tinkercad.com using a simple cone, printed 10 of them (using a 0,25mm nozzle and neutral white PLA filament), and painted them silver. Then I figured that I could drill a little hole in it with the same small hand drill I used on the resin, but turns out that cured PLA filament is quite hard, and brittle at the same time. So I went back to Tinkercad, and designed a cone with a hole in it that would allow a larger needle to go through it. I made the cone 0,5x0,5 millimeters.

After that was done I painted them silver again. Below you also see the shoulder pads, which is the only picture I have of them before I attached them to the doll.

I used 5 studs per shoulder pad, and sewed them directly onto the pads with black thread. After I secured them with a tiny drop of instant glue so they wouldn't shift. I could've created another hole that ran opposite of the one already going through the cone, but I think that it would've made the integrity of the inner (teeny tiny) supports within the cone too vulnerable.

After that was done I attached the shoulder pads around the arms and the harness.

For the final touches I attached the small chains from the jewelry kit, mirroring the references I found. I simply opened them with the pliers, hooked them through a stitch in the harness, and closed them. I actually had run out of these chains, and literally dismantled a necklace as I wasn't going to wait around and buy another jewellery kit or a whole spool of necklace chains when I was so close to the end. And I'm glad I did, because my patience had run out after I had been working on little Haarlep since August 2024.

And with that, they were done!

As soon as I was done I made pictures, and sent Haarlep on their way to Lia along with some snacks and a few other bits and bops. This project was such a challenge, but very much a welcome one. I had started learning how to crochet in december 2023, and truly went out of my comfort zone, and learned so much about crocheting techniques, trusting the process, and Frankensteining several patterns into one.

If you have any questions regarding this project, or if I can clear up anything mentioned here I'd love to help to the best of my abilities! Other than that, thank you for reading this and following the journey of creating the most intricate and hardest crocheting project I have made so far. And it was a joy to make. But it will most likely not be the last one, and not the hardest as I have no plans of quitting crocheting anytime soon. Who knows I'll surprise myself with the next Baldur's Gate 3, or other fandom project I'll decide to undertake.

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