Crochet Leopard – Free Amigurumi Pattern

Today I’m excited to share the newest addition to my Safari crochet animals: this crochet leopard! This special collection is close to my heart—it was created especially for my baby girl, and many of you helped shape it by voting for the Safari theme. Each animal in this series carries the love and joy that inspired it, and I couldn’t be happier to keep adding to the family!

Meet the Safari Friends and Start Your Animal Collection

This crochet leopard is one of twelve animals in the Safari Amigurumi Collection. If you haven’t seen them yet, you can already check out the Lion, Elephant, Zebra, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, and Tiger. Each one is designed to be fun, beginner-friendly, and full of personality!

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Crochet Leopard Free Amigurumi Pattern

Materials

• 2mm crochet hook 
• Schachenmayr Catania Sports Yarn weight. Or, any sports weight yarn colors light brown, dark brown, and beige.
• Black and white thread for embroidering the eyes. 
• Stuffing material
• Scissors
• Sewing needle.
• Or, you can use safety eyes! The position is at the end of this post.

Finish size

The finished Crochet Leopard amigurumi measures approximately 7″ (about 18 cm) tall. However, the final size may vary depending on your stitch tension and the materials used.

Gauge

Gauge is not crucial for this pattern, so feel free to use a hook size that matches your chosen yarn. I always recommend using a slightly smaller hook to keep the stitches tight and prevent the stuffing from showing through. If needed, adjust your hook size for a neater finish.

However, if you’d like to know the gauge for my chosen yarn and materials, here it is:
With sport-weight yarn and a 2mm crochet hook, the gauge for 5 rounds (increasing to 30 stitches) measures approximately 1.6″ (4.5 cm).

Terms and abbreviations (US terms):

Single crochet (sc): insert the hook into the stitch, pull up a loop yarn over the needle, you will have two loops on the hook, yarn over the needle, and pull it through the two loops.

Back Loop Single crochet (blsc): insert the hook into the back loop of the stitch, pull up a loop yarn over the needle, you will have two loops on the hook, yarn over the needle, and pull it through the two loops.

Increase (inc): make two single crochet inside the same stitch.

Decrease (dec): Insert hook into front loop only of next two stitches, yarn under, pull through, you will have two loops on the hook. Yarn under and pull through both loops on the hook.

Back loop Slip stitch (blsl): Insert hook into the back loop only of the stitch, yarn under, pull through both stitch and loop on hook.

Crochet Leopard Amigurumi Pattern Instructions

Body

With light brown yarn start,

1 rnd  6sc in a magic ring

2 rnd  6inc Total 12sts

3 rnd  (1sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 18sts

4 rnd  (2sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 24sts

5 rnd  (3sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 30sts

6 rnd  (4sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 36sts

7 rnd  (5sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 42sts

8 rnd  (6sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 48sts

9 to 11 rnd  48sc

12 rnd  (6sc, 1dec) repeat 6 times Total 42sts

13 to 15 rnd  42sc

16 rnd  (5sc, 1dec) repeat 6 times Total 36sts

17 to 20 rnd  36sc

21 rnd  (4sc, 1dec) repeat 6 times Total 30sts

22 to 25 rnd  30sc

26 rnd  (3sc, 1dec) repeat 6 times Total 24sts

27 to 30 rnd  24sc

• Cut the yarn and fasten it off.
• Add stuffing material.

Head

With light brown yarn start,

1 rnd  6sc in a magic ring

2 rnd  6inc Total 12sts

3 rnd  (1sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 18sts

4 rnd  (2sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 24sts

5 rnd  (3sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 30sts

6 rnd  (4sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 36sts

7 rnd  (5sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 42sts

8 rnd  (6sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 48sts

9 to 17 rnd  48sc

18 rnd  (6sc, 1dec) repeat 6 times Total 42sts

19 rnd  (5sc, 1dec) repeat 6 times Total 36sts

20 rnd  (4sc, 1dec) repeat 6 times Total 30sts

21 rnd  (3sc, 1dec) repeat 6 times Total 24sts

• Cut the yarn and fasten it off. Leave a tail for sewing later.
• Add stuffing material.

Paws

With beige start,

1 rnd  6sc in a magic ring

2 rnd  6inc Total 12sts

3 rnd  (1sc, 1inc) repeat 6 times Total 18sts

4 and 5 rnd  18sc

6 rnd  (1sc, 1dec) repeat 6 times Total 12sts

• Change to light brown

7 to 15  rnd  12sc

• Add stuffing material.

16 rnd  6sc crocheting the sides together, closing the paw.

• Cut the yarn and fasten it off.
• Make another four in total following the same instructions.
• Leave a small tail for sewing it.

Snout

With beige start,

1 rnd  6sc in a magic ring

2 rnd  6inc Total 12sts

3 rnd  (3inc, 3sc) repeat 2 times Total 18sts

*3inc means 1 inc followed by another increase. Two single crochet in the same stitch in the next 3 stitches.

4 and 5 rnd  18sc

• Cut the yarn, fasten off and leave a tail for sewing it.

Top of the Snout

Here we will work with rows. With light brown yarn chain 5. Skip the first chain and start,

1 row  4sc, chain 1, turn

2 row  1sc, 1dec, 1sc, chain 1, turn total 3sts

3 row  1sc, 1dec, chain 1, turn Total 2sts

4 row  2sc

• Cut the yarn and fasten it off. Leave a tail for sewing it.

Ears

With beige yarn start,

1 row  5sc in a magic ring, chain 1 and turn.

2 row  1sc, 1inc, 1sc, 1inc, 1sc, chain 1 and turn. Total 7sts

• Change to light brown

3 row  3sc, 1inc, 3sc, chain 1 and turn. Total 8sts

4 row  8sc, chain 1 and turn,

5 row  1inc, 6sc, 1inc. Total 10sts

• Cut the yarn, fasten it off and make another one following the same instructions.
• Leave a small tail for sewing.

Tail

With light brown start,

1 rnd  6sc

2 to 15 rnd  6sc

16 rnd  3sc crocheting the sides together, closing the tail.

• Cut the yarn and fasten it off. Leave a tail for sewing it later.

Assembly

1. Introduce two rounds of the body inside the head. Sew the head taking the second round (counting from top to bottom) of the body, and one stitch from the head.
2. Sew the top paws in the first round of the body, leaving 6 stitches between one to another.
3. Sew the down paws in round 10 of the body, leaving 14 stitches between one to another.
4. Sew the snout between rounds 10 and 18 of the head. Sew the light brown detail on top of the snout. With dark brown, embroider a little nose, in a triangle shape, on the tip of the light brown detail.
5. Fold the ears in half, making a triangle shape. Sew it in the top of the head, starting from round 3 and going down to round 8. See the images for reference.
6. Embroider the eyes in round 10 of the head, leaving 4 stitches between them. With the same thread, embroider the eyebrow 3 rounds above the eye with 2 stitches in length.
7. OPTIONAL: take a small piece of light pink yarn and embroider two little lines on each cheek. One round under the eyes 2 stitches to the side.
8. Sew the tail in round 12 on the back side of the body.
9. Now, take a long piece of dark brown yarn and embroider a couple of small lines all around its body. When you make two lines, one on top of the other, with the length of one stitch, these messy lines will look like leopard dots!

Congratulations!!!

Your leopard crochet toy is ready!

I hope you enjoyed this pattern, and if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

If this Leopard crochet pattern was clear and helpful, consider subscribing to my YouTube channel for more free patterns and crochet tips.

You can also visit my Ravelry shop to find more advanced crochet patterns, including low-cost printable versions of the free patterns you’ve seen here.

See you next time!

Love,

Ana

FAQ – Crochet Safari Leopard Pattern