Free Little Mermaid Flounder Crochet Pattern — Amigurumi Today

If you grew up watching The Little Mermaid, you already know that Flounder is one of the most lovable sidekicks in Disney history. That cheerful yellow-and-blue striped fish has been stealing hearts since 1989, and now you can bring him to life in the most adorable way possible — as a handmade amigurumi plush. Whether you’re a seasoned crocheter looking for your next project or a beginner ready to tackle something a little more adventurous, this free Little Mermaid Flounder crochet pattern from Amigurumi Today is the perfect place to start.

In this post, we’re going to walk you through everything you need to know about crocheting your very own Flounder amigurumi. We’ll cover the materials, the techniques, the stitches, and the tips that will help you produce a finished toy that looks as close to the animated original as possible. By the time you reach the end, you’ll have all the information you need to dive in and get started.

Why Flounder Makes the Perfect Amigurumi Project

Amigurumi — the Japanese art of crocheting or knitting small stuffed animals and characters — has exploded in popularity over the last decade, and Disney characters have become some of the most sought-after patterns in the community. Flounder is particularly well-suited to amigurumi because of his round, compact body shape. His wide eyes, chubby fins, and bold color stripes translate beautifully into yarn and stuffing.

He’s also a relatively accessible character for crocheters at the intermediate level. His body is essentially an oval or rounded sphere with fins and a tail added on, which means there are no overly complex shapes to wrestle with. Even the color striping, which might seem intimidating at first, is straightforward once you understand how to carry yarn or do clean color changes in the round.

For parents who want to create a meaningful gift, or for Disney fans who want a handmade piece of nostalgia for their shelf, Flounder is a genuinely special project. And because this pattern is completely free through Amigurumi Today, there’s no reason not to start today.

Materials You’ll Need

Before you pick up your hook, make sure you have all your supplies together. Working through a pattern and discovering you’re missing a key color of yarn mid-project is frustrating, so a little preparation goes a long way.

Yarn: You’ll need worsted weight yarn in the following colors — bright yellow, royal blue or cobalt blue, white, and small amounts of black and red or coral for the facial details. Brands like Lion Brand, Red Heart, or Paintbox Yarns all work well for this kind of project. The exact amounts are modest since Flounder is a small figure, but having at least a full skein of yellow and blue on hand will give you plenty to work with.

Hook: A 3.5mm or 4mm crochet hook is the standard recommendation for amigurumi worked in worsted weight yarn. Going down in hook size creates a tighter fabric, which is actually what you want for stuffed toys — it prevents the polyfill from showing through the stitches.

Polyfill stuffing: Polyester fiberfill is the standard choice. It’s inexpensive, widely available, and holds its shape well over time. Don’t be shy about stuffing your pieces firmly, especially the body, so that Flounder maintains his pleasantly chubby silhouette.

Safety eyes: For a toy intended for adult display or for older children, 12mm or 15mm black safety eyes give Flounder that wide, expressive Disney look. If you’re making this for a young child under the age of three, embroider the eyes in black yarn instead for safety.

Stitch markers: These are small but essential tools for amigurumi. Since you’re working in continuous rounds rather than joined rounds, you need to mark the beginning of each round so you don’t lose your place.

Yarn needle: You’ll need a blunt tapestry needle to sew pieces together and to weave in your ends neatly.

Scissors and pins: Sharp scissors for cutting yarn, and straight pins for holding pieces in position before you sew them permanently.

Understanding Amigurumi Basics Before You Begin

If you’re new to amigurumi, there are a few key concepts worth understanding before you cast on that magic ring.

The magic ring (or magic circle): Almost all amigurumi projects begin with this technique, which creates a tight, adjustable center for working in the round. It can feel awkward the first few times, but once it clicks, you’ll use it for virtually every project. There are excellent video tutorials available if the written instructions are confusing at first — don’t hesitate to look them up.

Working in continuous rounds: Unlike many flat crochet projects, amigurumi is worked in a continuous spiral rather than joined rounds. This means you never slip stitch to join or chain to begin a new round. You just keep going, marking your rounds with a stitch marker as you go.

Single crochet (sc): The vast majority of amigurumi is worked in single crochet only. It’s a dense, tight stitch that’s perfect for toys.

Increases and decreases: Shaping in amigurumi comes from strategic increases (working two single crochets into one stitch) and decreases (working two stitches together as one). The invisible decrease, where you insert your hook through the front loops only of two stitches, creates a much neater finish than the standard decrease and is well worth learning.

Crocheting through the back loop only (BLO): For certain details and edge effects — such as the base of a fin or the transition between color sections — working through the back loop only creates a visible ridge that adds definition and structure.

Pattern Overview: Crocheting Flounder Step by Step

The Amigurumi Today Flounder pattern is broken into separate pieces that are worked individually and then assembled. Here’s a general overview of the construction so you can see how the whole project comes together before you start.

The body is the largest and most important piece. You begin with a magic ring and increase steadily through the first several rounds to create a rounded, oval shape. The color striping — those iconic alternating yellow and blue bands — is worked right into the body as you go. The key to clean stripes is making your yarn changes at the same point in each round and carrying the unused color loosely up the inside of the work rather than cutting and re-joining every time. This saves you from a mountain of ends to weave in later and keeps the inside of your work tidy.

As you work upward through the body, you’ll reach the widest point and then begin decreasing to close the shape, leaving a small opening at the top where you’ll add the dorsal fin later. Before you close the body completely, insert your safety eyes (if using them) and stuff the body firmly with polyfill.

The tail fin is one of the most recognizable parts of Flounder’s design. It’s worked in blue yarn and consists of two flat, fan-shaped lobes that create his distinctive forked fish tail. The tail is crocheted in flat rounds and then folded slightly and sewn onto the back of the body at an angle that gives him a natural, swimming posture.

The side fins (pectoral fins) are small, flat ovals worked in yellow yarn with a blue tip or edge detail. Flounder has two of these, one on each side of his body, and their placement is important for getting that characteristic Disney look. Pinning them in place before sewing allows you to experiment with the angle and position until you’re happy.

The dorsal fin sits along the top of Flounder’s body and is typically worked in blue yarn with a slight curve. It’s a small piece but it adds a lot of personality and helps the figure read immediately as a fish rather than just a round blob.

The facial features are where your Flounder really comes to life. The large, expressive eyes are the centerpiece — if you’re using safety eyes, position them carefully before securing them permanently, because once they’re locked in place, they cannot be moved without damaging the work. Flounder’s eyes sit high and wide on his face, giving him that wide-eyed, innocent Disney expression. His mouth is a simple embroidered curve in red or coral yarn, and his cheeks can be given a rosy blush with a small amount of pink yarn or even a light touch of blush-colored chalk pastel rubbed gently into the surface of the yarn.

Tips for Getting the Color Stripes Right

The yellow and blue stripes are Flounder’s most distinctive feature, and getting them to look clean and even is the part of this pattern that most people find challenging. Here are some techniques that make a real difference.

Change your yarn at the same stitch every round. Designate a specific stitch as your “change point” (your stitch marker is already sitting there to mark the start of the round), and always switch colors at that stitch. This keeps your color jogs aligned vertically rather than spiraling around the body.

Use the jogless stripe technique. When you complete a round in one color and switch to the next, there’s a natural “jog” or step at the color change point. You can minimize this by slipping the first stitch of the new color rather than working into it normally, then working into it on the next round. This shifts the visual line of the color change and makes it look much more seamless.

Don’t cut your yarn between stripes. Carry the unused color up the inside of the work by laying it across the top of your stitches and crocheting over it. This creates a small “float” on the inside that you simply pull snug at the beginning of each new stripe. Just be careful not to pull the floats too tightly or they’ll pucker the fabric on the outside.

Assembling Your Flounder

Assembly is where amigurumi lives or dies. A beautifully crocheted set of pieces can look amateur if the assembly is sloppy, but with a little patience and care, your Flounder will look polished and professional.

Use straight pins to place every piece before you sew a single stitch. Lay out your finished body and hold each fin and the tail against it, rotating and adjusting until the proportions feel right and the figure reads naturally. Take a photo with your phone so you have a reference to return to if pieces shift while you’re sewing.

Use a whip stitch or mattress stitch to sew pieces together, depending on which gives you a cleaner join on a particular piece. For the tail, which is a larger flat piece, the mattress stitch gives a nearly invisible seam. For the small side fins, a whip stitch is usually fine since the join is hidden partially by the fin itself.

Leave a long tail of yarn when finishing off each piece so you have plenty to work with when sewing. There’s nothing worse than running out of sewing yarn halfway through attaching a fin and having to join a new length in the middle of a seam.

Finishing Touches That Elevate Your Amigurumi

The difference between a good amigurumi and a great one often comes down to a few finishing details that take only minutes but make an enormous visual impact.

Weave in your ends meticulously. Run each end through at least an inch of stitches in multiple directions, doubling back on itself, before trimming. This prevents ends from working loose over time and keeps the inside of your work clean.

Sculpt with your yarn needle. After assembly, use your tapestry needle to push and pull gently at the yarn around the eyes and mouth to adjust the expression. Amigurumi is surprisingly sculptable even after it’s finished, and a minute spent nudging stitches into place can transform a neutral face into an expressive one.

Block if needed. While blocking is more commonly associated with knitting, lightly steaming or dampening your finished Flounder and reshaping him can help even out any uneven stitching and give him a more uniform, rounded appearance.

Add blush cheeks. This one small detail makes Flounder look more alive and character-accurate. A small amount of blush-colored yarn, a cosmetic sponge with a tiny amount of pink eyeshadow, or even a blush pencil applied lightly to the cheek area gives him the sweet, rosy glow of the animated character.

How to Display or Gift Your Flounder Amigurumi

Once your Flounder is complete, you have so many wonderful options for him. He makes a charming desk companion or bookshelf display piece, especially if you have other Little Mermaid figures nearby. He can sit alongside a handmade Ariel doll, Sebastian the crab, or other characters from the film for a full underwater scene.

As a gift, a handmade Flounder is genuinely touching. For a child who loves The Little Mermaid, or for a Disney-obsessed adult friend, receiving something that was made by hand specifically for them carries a weight that a store-bought toy simply can’t match. Consider pairing him with a small tag that identifies the pattern source and includes a personal note about how long he took to make.

If you share your finished project on social media — and you absolutely should — tag Amigurumi Today and use hashtags like #amigurumi, #crochetdisney, #flounder, #thelittlemermaid, and #amigurumitoday to connect with the community and share your work with other fans of the pattern.

Where to Find the Full Free Pattern

The complete, step-by-step written pattern for this Little Mermaid Flounder amigurumi is available for free on the Amigurumi Today website. The pattern includes full stitch counts for each round, detailed color change instructions, and notes on assembly. Amigurumi Today is one of the most trusted names in the amigurumi community, known for patterns that are clearly written, well-tested, and accompanied by helpful photographs that show each stage of the construction process.

Visit amigurumitoday.com to find the Flounder pattern along with hundreds of other free amigurumi patterns ranging from beginner-friendly animals to complex character designs. Whether you’re looking for your next Disney project or just browsing for inspiration, their pattern library is a wonderful resource to have bookmarked.

Final Thoughts

There is something genuinely magical about crocheting a character that has meant so much to so many people. Flounder has been a beloved part of childhood for generations, and creating him in yarn — stitch by patient stitch — is a way of honoring that affection in the most tactile and personal way possible. Whether you’re making him for yourself, for a child, or for a fellow Disney fan, the finished Flounder amigurumi is more than a toy. It’s a small, handmade piece of joy.

So gather your yarn, sharpen your hook, and get ready to make a little magic. The sea is waiting, and so is Flounder.