PlanetJune Stories: Anna’s Tortoise Door Stopper

Today’s PlanetJune story is from Anna in Holland. A few months ago, Anna contacted me for advice on my Tortoise pattern, saying:

My boyfriend has a tortoise, and his mom asked if I could make a door stopper that looks like his tortoise. So, I bought your beautiful and realistic crochet pattern. However, I’m looking for a kind of filling that’s heavy enough so it can be used as a door stopper. Would you perhaps have any tips or tricks for me for any material I could use as filling?

A tortoise door stopper – isn’t that a fantastic idea?! Here were my suggestions:

• It might help to scale up the pattern using a heavier yarn and larger hook, to make a slightly larger tortoise which would give room to add more weight inside the body.
• To weight the tortoise, stuff the head, neck, legs and tail as usual, but stuff the main body cavity with something heavy, e.g. weighted stuffing pellets, small decorative stones, glass marbles or sand.
• To contain the stuffing, insert an empty plastic or fabric bag into the body cavity, then pour the stuffing into the bag before tying it off securely.

An extra tip if you want to try this project too: as the shell will completely cover the body, it doesn’t matter if your weighted stuffing makes the middle of the body look a bit lumpy!

I was delighted when Anna wrote back to show me the finished result, and (with her permission) I’m sharing her story with you! Over to Anna…

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After some time, he’s finally finished. It was a fun project☺️ Your pattern guide was really easy to use.

I used a 4,5 mm hook and Panduro chunky acrylic yarn (they recommended a 8 mm hook). I didn’t want it to be too bulky, so I crocheted pretty tightly, so that the filling doesn’t stick out of the holes in between the stitches.

I used 9mm eyes like you said in your pattern. I also tried 8mm, but I thought those were a little too small; 9mm was perfect!

Because it’ll be used as doorstopper, I used heavy decorative stones (around 1,5 kg [June: that’s about 3lb]) which I put in a resealable bag. I didn’t really have something else to put it in, but any sturdy bag will do. I thought just putting in the stones loose was not a good idea, because then they could stick out or perhaps damage the wool.

I just filled the head, legs and tail as described in your pattern with some cotton pillow filling. I also put a little layer of filling around the bag with stones, so its body is a little less sturdy and rounder.

I put in the bag around Round 33 of the Body & Tail part of the pattern.

I thought you’d like to see the resemblance between the end result of your beautiful tortoise pattern and a picture of my boyfriend’s tortoise.

(Bingo the tortoise was so energetic, he couldn’t sit still at all. So, this picture is the best I could do of them together😅)

My mother-in-law was very happy with the tortoise, so thanks again!

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(Back to me, June, again!)

Isn’t that a wonderful project idea? You did a fantastic job, Anna – your tortoise looks just like the adorable Bingo, and your crocheted version clearly makes an excellent door stopper (and is much better at sitting still!)

Thank you so much, Anna, for sharing your story with us today 🙂

Please leave Anna a comment if you’ve enjoyed this post!

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PS – If you’d like to crochet your own realistic tortoise – either as a stuffed toy or a door stopper version – you can find my Tortoise crochet pattern here.

PPS – And if the multi-part shell seems intimidating, try the faster one-piece shell option when you buy the Tortoise pattern with the Simple-Shell Expansion Pack!

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Do you have a PlanetJune Story you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it! Please email your story to june@planetjune.com, together with one or more high quality photos showing what you’ve made from PlanetJune patterns. If I choose your story to feature here on the blog, I’ll send you your choice of pattern from my shop to say thank you!