Spring is almost here! To celebrate, I decided to make a Sakura Mochi Amigurumi Crochet pattern!

In Japan, people celebrate the arrival of Spring by gathering with friends at parks. There, they share delicious bento boxes and enjoy the cherry blossoms together. The act of gathering to view flowers together is called Hanami (花見). Because of the abundance of cherry blossoms in the spring, Japanese people also like to incorporate the flowers and leaves into desserts and food. The leaves and flowers are often pickled or salted and the process of preservation brings out a very slight cherry flavour.

Sakura Mochi (桜餅) is a dessert that utilizes the pickled cherry blossom leaves as an edible wrapper around a sweet rice mochi with red bean paste filling. The rice is usually not fully mashed up, so you can still see some grains of rice in the mochi. When working this pattern, I highly recommend working the yarn under single crochet stitch to replicate the bumpiness of the rice.

Note: To protect my work, I have disabled right click and printing on my site because I have experienced theft in the past. Please do not copy my patterns in any way. By copying or distributing my patterns without permission, you are making it difficult for designers like me to continue doing what I love. Doing so also discourages me and will prompt me to stop sharing my patterns freely. If you wish to utilize the free patterns, you may do so on my site. Thank you so much for your understanding and for being respectful!

If you have an issue with how I choose to share my free patterns on my site, read this.

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If you wish to print out the pattern, you can purchase the ad-free, printable PDF of the Hanami Desserts Collection from the shop. ($3 CAD for both the Hanami Dango and the Sakura Mochi Patterns)

By purchasing the printable version, you are also supporting me directly. Your support allows me to continue to create new patterns and maintain the site! 🙂

If you would like to translate the page, you can copy the URL and paste it into Google Translate to translate the entire page!

You can also find the free Hanami Dango Pattern post here! 

**Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional costs to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. You can read a little more about that here!

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Yarn I Used

I used WeCrochet Shine Sport Yarn for these crochet amigurumi ornaments; however, you can use any yarn as long as you correspond your hook to the weight of your yarn. You can also easily size up/down by using thicker/thinner yarn, just make sure to adjust your hook accordingly.

For this toy, I used roughly 8g of Blush, 8g of Peapod, & a little bit of Green Apple. NOTE: The amount of yarn you use will depend on how tightly you crochet.

Gauge

5 Round Circle = 1.5” with a 3.25mm (D) hook. Note: I am working with the x-stitch (yarn under sc). If you are working the standard sc, go down a hook size (3mm if you can find it, 2.75mm works as well).

Gauge isn’t super important for amigurumi, but I included it just in case you want to check your gauge. Being a little off should not affect the final product too much. You can learn more about how to measure gauge for amigurumi here! 

Free Sakura Mochi (桜餅) Amigurumi Crochet Pattern

The difficulty level of this pattern is Easy/Intermediate. The finished amigurumi crochet Sakura Mochi measures to be about 2.5in (7 cm) wide

This pattern is written in US crochet terminology.

Please do not reprint, sell or claim the pattern as your own. If you wish to share this pattern, you may link to the free pattern on the blog. Please do not copy and post the pattern onto your site.

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TERMINOLOGY

st(s): stitch(es)
ch: chain
sl st: slip stitch
sc: single crochet
hdc: half double crochet
dc: double crochet
tr: triple/treble crochet
inc: two single crochet in one stitch
dec: invisible decrease- single crochet two stitches together through the front loops only
YO: yarn over
sc2tog: single crochet two together: (insert hook into the next st, YO, draw up a loop) x 2, you should have 3 loops on your hook. YO and draw it through all 3 loops on your hook.
(…) x #: repeat anything in the parenthesis however many times the number indicates
[#]: total number of stitches for that row
#sc/hdc/dc/sl st/inc/dec: one sc/hdc/dc/sl st/inc/dec in the following # stitches
hdc#: hdc # times in the next stitch

MATERIALS

• WeCrochet Shine Sport Yarn 
• 3.25mm Crochet Hook (3mm or 2.75mm if you are working the regular single crochet stitch)
• Scissors
• Darning Needle
• Locking Stitch Markers (Optional)
• Pins
• Polyfil Stuffing or Scrap Yarn

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Notes & Guides

Closing the Hole – To close the hole, fasten off and thread the yarn tail onto a darning needle. Insert the needle under the front loop of the next stitch and pull through. Repeat with the rest of the stitches, then pull on the tail to close up the hole. Weave the tail into the centre of the hole to hide the tail.

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This pattern is worked in continuous rounds unless otherwise stated – Mark the first stitch of the round with a stitch marker to help keep track of where the beginning of the round is.

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Sakura Mochi

with Blush yarn

1 6sc in magic circle [6]
2 6inc [12]
3 sc, 3inc, 3sc, 3inc, 2sc [18] *Note: 3inc = work 1 inc into each of the next 3 sts
4 (sc, inc) x 2, inc, sc, inc, 3sc, inc, sc, 2inc, sc, inc, 2sc [26]
5 4sc, inc, 2sc, inc, 9sc, inc, 2sc, inc, 5sc [30]
6-13 sc in all sts [30]
14 6sc, dec, 2sc, dec, 9sc, dec, 2sc, dec, 3sc [26]
15 3sc, dec, sc, 2dec, sc, dec, 3sc, dec, sc, 2dec, sc, dec [18]
16 (sc, dec) x 6 [12]

Fasten off, stuff fully, close the hole, and the weave tail in.

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Sakura Leaf

with Peapod yarn

1 6sc in magic circle [6]
2 6inc [12]
3 (sc, inc) x 6 [18]
4 sc, inc, (2sc, inc) x 5, sc [24]
5 (3sc, inc) x 2, 3sc, hdc2, 3sc, inc, 3sc, hdc2, 3sc, inc [30]
6 (4sc, inc) x 2, 4sc, hdc2, 9sc, hdc, turn

From this point on, you will no longer be working in continuous rounds. Instead, you will be turning at the end of each row and working into the tops of the stitches from the previous row.

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Do not Ch 1 at the beginning of each row. Working a chain 1 at the beginning of the row makes the sides bumpy, which will result in gaps when we work around the entire piece later on.

Also, please note that sc2tog and dec are not the same (see Terminology above).

7-17     12sc, turn [12]
18        dec, 8sc, dec, turn [10]
19        sc2tog, 6sc, sc2tog, turn [8]
20        dec, 4sc, dec, turn [6]
21        sc2tog, 2sc, sc2tog, turn [4]
22        2dec, turn [2]
23        sc2tog, turn [1]

Without fastening off, pick up round 24 (see next paragraph) all the way around the leaf.

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Make sure to work each stitch into the side of each row. There isn’t a specific spot to work into, but just do your best to pick up the stitches as evenly as possible. You will need to work 2 stitches into the sides of the hdc from round 6 because hdc sts are taller.

The right side of the circle should be facing you (the side with the magic circle tail is the wrong side).

24        Working into the side of rows 7-23: (sc, ch 2, sl st in 2^nd ch from hook, sc in the next st) x 6, 3hdc, 3dc

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Work the next st into the st on the circle that you worked the final hdc into in round 6: tr

Work around the circle: 2dc, hdc, 14sc, hdc, 2dc, tr, work the rest of this round into the other side of rows 7-23: 3dc, 3hdc, (sc, ch 2, sl st in 2^nd ch from hook, sc in the next st) x 6, ch 6, sl st in 2^nd ch from hook, 3 sl st, sc, sl st into the first st of this round.

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Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing (roughly 7”).

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Embroidery & Assembly

• Thread a long piece of Green Apple yarn (roughly 15-20” long) onto your darning needle and embroider the veins onto the Sakura Leaf. Sew in the midrib first, then sew short stitches over the line to “staple” the line down to secure. As you continue to move down the midrib, sew in the veins as well. If you need help with embroidery, watch this video!

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• Place the Mochi into the Sakura Leaf and wrap the tip of the leaf over the top of the mochi. Run the tail from the leaf through the mochi a couple times to secure. Trim off any excess tail.

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You have just finished your very own Sakura Mochi!

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Please leave me a comment down below (or contact me) if you have any questions about this pattern. I would also love to see your creation so don’t forget to tag me (@olliehollycrochet) on Instagram or use the #olliehollycrochet! Please let me know in the comments what you would like to see next!

If you find any mistakes in the pattern, please contact me and let me know! I do my best to catch my mistakes when I edit my patterns but I sometimes miss the little things.

You may sell products made from this pattern in small quantities but please clearly credit the design to me, Abby Sy of Ollie + Holly and provide a link to my blog www.OllieHolly.com. Permission is NOT granted for mass production or factory manufacturing of any kind.  Thank you for being respectful and for your understanding!