Crochet Puff Flower: Patterns & Uses

Flowers and floral patterns are a big part of crochet, and the crochet puff flower is a really distinctive one of them. In this article I am going to share a simple crochet puff flower pattern, and some fun and fabulous ways to use it.

The repetitive and smooth shapes formed by our yarn are often reflective of the natural world. From the flat flowers at the centre of granny squares, to three dimensional individual pieces, there are plenty of petal designs to choose from.

I have an old instructional video for making a puff flower. It’s a fun pattern, but how I do it these days is a little different and more to my current taste. So i’ll share the written instructions for my new puff flower method below:

Crochet Puff Flower Stitches

• magic circle
• ch – chain
• PS – puff stitch
• cc – color change

Puff Stitch Instructions

The make a puff stitch you will need to:

1. Yarn over, hook through the stitch, yarn over again, pull through.
2. Yarn over again, hook through the stitch, yarn over again, pull through.
3. Yarn over a final time, hook through the stitch, yarn over, pull through.
4. Yarn over, and pull through ever loop on the hook.
5. Slip stitch to close

A Cheat

If your puff petals are looking a bit flat, try using an extra yarn over and pull through before you close the loops, or swap to a heavier weight of yarn, or a higher wool percentage fiber.

Crochet Puff Flower Pattern

Begin with the center of the flower in your first color. 

Round 1

Make a magic circle of six stitches.

cc to petal color.

Round 2

You will need to keep your stitches nice and even. I recommend at least for your first few, working in a fairly bright color so that you can clearly see your stitches.

Into one of the outside stitches, make a chain of two stitches. Make 1PS into the same stitch, ch2, then slst into the same stitch.

*slst into the next stitch, ch2, then PS into the next stitch, ch2, then slst into the same stitch

Repeat from * until the final petal is completely, then join by slip stitching again into the edge of the first petal.

You can now sew in the loose ends with a yarn needle or hook, and snip them close to the back of the flower.

Crochet Puff Flower Uses

Puff flowers are a great fun piece of crochet, but they are a bit fiddly and time consuming. However, when finished they are very versatile, and look great in a variety of colors and sizes.

As individual pieces, joined together or as embelishments – they will make a great addition to your crochet arsenal.

A puff flower is a very tactile crochet piece, and one that has bags of character.  Whether you want to make it in traditional floral shades, or extravagent colors and textures, there is so much that you can do with a puff flower.

If you want to find out how to make the puff flower, check out my article and tutorial video here.

Today we are going to have a look at just a few of the many options for making use of this funky item.

Individual Crochet Puff Flower Uses

Puff flowers are created by forming thick stitches, and as a result are wide when finished. Whilst it is possible to make small thin crochet patterns into static pieces, it requires extra effort. Starching, for example, is a great way to make a small crochet piece into a usable individual one.

But with puff flowers, no extra effort is required. They are firm and solid flowers, beautifully formed and ready to be adapted to lots of fun ideas.

They can make very sweet key rings. I have had one attached to my keys for a few days now, and it’s holding up very well.

In order to attach your puff flower to an external object like a chain or ring, there are a couple of ways that you can secure it. You can either do so directly from the puff flower itself, by hooking the extra piece straight into a stitch, or you can create an addition piece of crochet.

With the example shown here, I have made a chain from the underside of a petal of the flower. I have then double crocheted into each stitch of the chain, attaching it to the next petal along too.

I then attached the key ring into the chain.

This is my prefered method because I believe it increases the life of the flower, as it is not being directly tugged by metal and encouraging pulls. If your chain pulls it is fairly simple work to detach it and work a new one in.

Be warned though, even the tightest puff flower might catch on something in your bag and unravel if it’s being tugged around on your keys every day. It should last a while though, and will certainly be an eyecatching addition to your key ring. I have had one on my key ring for a week now, and it is still going strong!

Puff flowers can make great accessories to garments too, for example as button holes on formal suits. They are easy to attach, using a button sewn onto the rear of the flower or even with a simple pin.

Another fun use of this quirky little flower is as a part of a necklace. You can either attach it to a traditional gold or silver necklace you already own, or make the attachment yourself with a crocheted chain.

The only limit on the number of ways you can use your puff flowers is your own imagination.

Crochet Puff Flower Embellishment

Puff flowers can be incorporated into so many things. And we are talking crochet and beyond, here.

Traditional granny square blankets or other soft furnishings can easily have puff flowers added on, pretty much anywhere you like. All you will need is a nice secure piece of crochet, some yarn and a yarn needle when attaching them to crocheted works. When attaching them to a sewn design on cotton or another fabric, then you will need a needle and thread.

To fully secure your flower onto a fabric cushion cover for example, it can help to use two pieces of fine thread for each stitch. This will help to secure the yarn and keep the pattern looking neat and tidy.

I am a big fan of contrasting materials if you want a really fresh and different look.

A good way to do this is to theme them by color or genre, so as to not have too much as a disparity in the finished product.

A green corduroy cushion cover looks amazing with similarly natural colored puff flowers detailed onto it.

Puff Flower Blanket

Although there are several options for the use of a puff flower, my favorite will always be this one. The thick blanket.

Crocheted granny square blankets are beautiful things. But they are to my mind predominantly decorative, because they are fine and thin. You can thicken this blanket type by using tighter stitches, a smaller hook, or doubling up your yarn. But they are essentially a loose weave item.

Puff flower blankets can be made in one of two ways.

In this example the flowers have been sewn together with yarn. I have used a fairly bright purple to illustrate the joining, but even then as you can see they are still well disguised at the back of your piece.

The trick is to push the needle between the puffs of the petals and behind the double crochets exposed point.

However uniform you make your individual petals, it is hard to make a closely stitched puff flower blanket look uniform. My solution to this is to deliberately randomise the design.

A lot of the appeal of the puff flower blanket is it’s unusual beauty and the intensity of the design. With so many flowers pressed so close together, I think it isn’t a flavour for the conformist crocheter!

Personally I don’t have a problem with this, as I don’t think it does a hand made item any harm to look hand made. But if you are all about consistency it can potentially frustrating.

The other method is to crochet the blanket together. I feel that this somewhat detracts from potential of the piece, as it will inevitably be less stiff and warm as a finished product. However, that is just a matter of personal taste. Why not try a couple of different methods on a small test sample and see which you prefer?

The Crochet Puff Flower

Puff flowers are a great thing to learn how to make, because once you have mastered the skill you will be able to then use it to make any number of items.

Their use your creations is wide and varied, and although they are definitely a time consuming item, it is one that is well worth the extra effort to produce.

Why not let us know what you have been doing with your puff flowers in the comments box below?