Guide to Amigurumi Doll Proportions

When working with proportions everything is measured by heads. The average human male is 7-8 heads tall. This means if you measured the height of their head and multiplied by 7 you’d get close to their total height. Different art styles have different proportions. This chart shows some common types.

Style	Height in Heads
Adult Male	8
Adult Female	7.5
Teenager	7
Child	5.5
Baby	4
Anime Character	7
Chibi Character	2-3

Obviously these do vary from artist to artist.

But what if you want to make a specific character? In that case you will measure the individual character. Find and print a picture where they are standing up relatively straight and you can see from their head to their feet. Take a ruler and measure the head. For my example I will use the Onceler. Here is the picture I printed out of him:

Cute right? Measure the head of the character and write it down. Onceler’s is 1 inch. Now get a piece of yarn and a marker. Cut the yarn the same height as your character in the picture. Now put a mark on the yarn every head height, like so:

 

You will use the string to measure all his parts. Start by finding out exactly how many heads high your character is.

Onceler is six heads high. His legs are 2.5 heads (pants being 3 heads), Torso is 2 including the neck, while the vest is 1. His arms are 2.

Now crochet a head. Measure it and write down it’s height. The head I made was 1.25”. If you want to know the specifics like hook size and # of rows click here.

Math! Don’t be scared, it’s very easy. You can even use a calculator, I won’t tell. Write out equations for the length of each part of your amigurumi. The equation will be your ami's head’s height x how many heads high that part is supposed to be. For example:

The head I made was 1.25”

So that means…

The legs: 1.25” x 2.5 = 3.125”

The pants: 1.25” x 3 = 3.75”

The torso not including neck: 1.25” x 1.5 = 1.87”

The shirt: 1.25” x 1 = 1.25”

The arms: 1.25” x 2 = 2.5”

Total height: 1.25” x 6 = 7.5”

That makes your life a whole lot easier and takes your dolls to the next level. Just keep a ruler or tape measure handy and start crocheting, you’ll know exactly when each part is the perfect length.

If you have any questions please comment or email me! ktstevens90@gmail.com