Summoner Yuna Amigurumi Doll

"Listen to my story..."

...These are the opening words to one of the most time consuming games I have played and do not regret the hundreds of hours I have poured in.  

I would like to take a moment and release my inner nerd.  I would like you to meet Yuna, the heroine of Final Fantasy X, the game that I have played four times and still cry during the ending.  In honor of the game's re-release for the Play Station 3 (got it for Christmas!...in March.  Couldn't beat pre-ordering it!), I was excited to have the inspiration to make a doll in her image.  Sure, I would have loved to have completed the adorable little pattern floating around Etsy, but I saved money from not purchasing a pattern, and had a wonderful opportunity to practice some crochet skills.  Perhaps one day I could develop my own patterns...

Yuna, modeling the DualShock 3 controller for her new system...

I used a super simple doll pattern that I found on Pinterest for Yuna's body.  I then looked to her character design by Tetsuya Nomura for inspiration for her hair and clothes.  The first thing I did was paint her eyes; I didn't have green doll eyes, so I just took a set of black eyes and some blue and green nail polish to show her heterochromia.  Her skirt is worked in the round starting with a foundation single crochet, followed by double crochet stitches all the way down.  Her top is  a long strip of single crochet stitches draped around her neck, crossing in the front, and stitched down.  She has a sash with a flower on the front (totally did that myself!) with some aqua yarn hanging out.  She also has a yellow bow on the back of the sash.  I had the hardest time with her sleeves.  So, I started with pink yarn and single stitches, experimented with increases, and then switched to white double crochet stitches. In the end, I decreased the stitches to try to make it even, and wrapped the white part around her arms, adding little purple bows.  This was my first time installing doll hair.  That was interesting, but I think it turned out well.  I just stuck it all in, then gave her a hair cut to match Nomura's design (as close as I could, that is).

So, what do you think?  I wish I would have taken notes to write out a pattern to share, but isn't art about using our imaginations?  I would love to make BaburuStar's Yuna and maybe other Final Fantasy characters, but I felt an awesome sense of accomplishment in almost completely improvising this one.

P.S. Her arms bend. (My awesome husband suggested crocheting around pipe cleaners for her arms. Genius!)