Crochet Lemon- Free pattern

Add a citrus accent to your handmade arrangements with this free crochet lemon pattern. Crochet a stuffed lemon, make a wired leaf and attach both to a wrapped stem. Repeat the fruit and leaf pieces to create a fuller branch.

Use yellow for ripe lemons and green for a contrasting fruit variation, as shown in the photos. Match the leaf and stem colours to your other flowers for a coordinated bouquet.

Explore our free crochet flower pattern collection for more stems to combine. For a separate project you can save and follow offline, browse our flower and botanical PDF patterns.

Colour and Display Ideas

Try bright yellow fruit with olive-green leaves, or use a softer yellow with sage foliage. Keep the yarn weights consistent across the pieces so the fruit and leaves remain proportionate.

Display the finished branch in a vase, add it to a handmade bouquet or make several branches for a fruit-themed table arrangement.

Materials

• Yarn: yellow for the lemon, light and dark green for leaves and stem wrapping. Green may also be used for a fruit variation.
• Crochet hook: 2.5 mm as a starting point; adjust to suit your yarn.
• Main flower rod: approximately 40 cm long × 2 mm diameter.
• Craft wire: approximately 0.4 mm diameter. Allow around 15 cm for each fruit support, adjusting for your branch length. Each leaf needs a separate wire long enough to follow its full perimeter, with extra length at the base for attachment.
• Fiberfill for the lemon.
• Stitch markers, tapestry needle and scissors.
• Pliers or suitable wire-bending tools, and wire cutters if needed.
• Hot-melt glue for securing the final stem wrapping.

The instructions below make one lemon and one leaf. Repeat them as needed for your arrangement. No fixed yarn quantity is specified.

Difficulty and Gauge

Confident beginner to intermediate: the fruit uses single crochet increases and decreases. The leaf adds several stitch heights, working around a foundation chain and crocheting over wire. Stem assembly requires additional shaping and sewing.

No fixed gauge or finished size is specified. Yarn weight, hook size and tension affect the dimensions. Use a firm fabric that holds the stuffing without large gaps, and make one fruit and leaf before preparing a full branch.

Stitches and Abbreviations

This pattern uses US crochet terminology.

• ch: chain.
• ss: slip stitch.
• sc: single crochet.
• hdc: half double crochet.
• dc: double crochet.
• inc: work 2 sc in the next stitch.
• sc2tog: single crochet two stitches together; one decrease.
• st / sts: stitch / stitches.
• R: round.
• [number]: stitch count, excluding starting chains, joining slip stitches and decorative chains.

Single Crochet Two Together — sc2tog

Insert the hook into the next stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop. Insert into the following stitch, yarn over and pull up another loop. Yarn over and pull through all three loops. This uses two stitches and produces one stitch.

One-Chain Leaf Tip Loop

After the sc at the leaf’s tip, ch 1 and work ss back into the top of that same sc. This creates a small decorative loop without using another stitch from the previous round.

This version specifies the loop’s return point instead of the unclear “chain 1 picot” wording. Keep it loose enough to form a small bump.

Pattern Notes

• The lemon is worked in joined rounds without turning.
• Starting ch 1 does not count as a stitch. Join each round with ss to its first sc.
• Work into the crochet stitches of the previous round, not into the starting chain or joining ss.
• Mark the first stitch of each round and count before continuing.
• The leaf is worked around both sides of a foundation chain. Rotate at the tip rather than turning the leaf over.
• Prepare the fruit’s wire support before closing its final opening.
• Repeat the same fruit pattern in yellow or green. Repeat the leaf pattern in your chosen foliage shade.

Step-by-Step Crochet Lemon Pattern

Lemon Body — Make as Many as Needed

With yellow yarn, make a magic ring. For a green fruit variation, use green yarn instead.

Joining rule: after Round 1, begin every round with ch 1 and finish with ss to the first sc. These chains and slip stitches are not included in the counts below.

• R1: 6 sc into the magic ring. Tighten the ring and join. [6]
• R2: 6 sc. [6]
• R3: inc six times. [12]
• R4: (1 sc, inc) six times. [18]
• R5: (1 sc, inc, 1 sc) six times. [24]
• R6: (3 sc, inc) six times. [30]
• R7–R13: 30 sc in each round, for seven rounds. [30 per round]
• R14: (3 sc, sc2tog) six times. [24]
• R15: (1 sc, sc2tog, 1 sc) six times. [18]
• R16: (1 sc, sc2tog) six times. [12]

Add fiberfill while the opening is still accessible. Stuff lightly and evenly, keeping the ends tapered rather than stretching the stitches.

• R17: (1 sc, sc2tog) four times. [8]
• R18: 8 sc. [8]

Insert the Fruit Support Before Closing

1. Take a separate wire for the fruit stem. Bend one end into a small closed loop and cover the cut end with yarn.
2. Pass the straight end through the opening from inside the lemon, leaving the loop inside against the stuffing. The long straight section extends out as the fruit stem.
3. Using a short length of matching yarn, stitch the covered loop to the inside of the crochet fabric near the opening. Secure it so the fruit cannot slide along the wire.
4. Adjust the stuffing around the loop, keeping the wire clear of the stitches you will work in Round 19.

• R19: sc2tog four times. Join to the first sc. [4]

Fasten off, leaving a sewing tail. Thread the tail through the front loops of the four remaining stitches and draw the opening closed around the wire. Secure the tail and bury it inside the fruit.

Crochet Lemon Leaf

Foundation and Round 1

With green yarn, ch 24. Starting in the second chain from the hook:

1. Work 2 sc, 3 hdc, 13 dc, 3 hdc and 1 sc along the first side. This uses 22 chains.
2. Work 3 sc in the final remaining chain. Mark the middle sc as the leaf tip.
3. Rotate and crochet into the unused loops on the opposite side of the foundation chain: 1 sc, 3 hdc, 13 dc, 3 hdc and 2 sc.
4. Join with ss to the first sc. [47 sts]

The count is 22 stitches on the first side, 3 at the tip and 22 on the opposite side.

Round 2 — Wired Edge

1. Ch 1. Lay the wire along the leaf edge and crochet over it.
2. Work 1 sc into each stitch up to and including the marked middle tip stitch: 24 sc.
3. Ch 1 and work ss into the top of the sc just completed to make the small tip loop. Do not work another sc into that tip stitch.
4. Work 1 sc into each of the remaining 23 stitches.
5. Join with ss to the first sc. Fasten off, leaving a long green tail for stem wrapping.

Round 2 count: 47 sc, plus the decorative tip chain and slip stitch. Leave both wire ends at the leaf base. Bind them together with the green tail and wrap the resulting short leaf stem.

Assemble the Lemon Branch

1. Prepare the pieces: wrap each fruit wire and leaf wire with green yarn. Secure the wrapping neatly while leaving enough wire length to bind each piece to the main rod.
2. Plan the arrangement: position a leaf near the top of the rod, then place the fruit and additional leaves at varied heights. Check the spacing before binding them permanently.
3. Bind the top piece: lay its wire tail alongside the rod and wrap firmly with green yarn to hold it in place.
4. Add the remaining pieces: continue wrapping downward, binding each leaf or fruit stem as you reach its planned position. Place leaves at different angles so they do not hide every fruit.
5. Finish the main stem: cover the joins and wire ends with green yarn. Wrap to the bottom of the rod and secure the final yarn end with a small amount of glue.
6. Shape the branch: once the glue has cooled, gently bend the side stems and leaves until the fruit remains visible from the front and sides.

Build a Fruit and Flower Arrangement

Combine your lemon branch with crochet daisies for a yellow-and-white palette, or add crochet strawberries for more fruit accents.

Find more combinations in our free crochet flower and leaf tutorials.

Try a Botanical PDF Project

If you enjoy yellow accents and green foliage, try the Yellow Daylily C2C Blanket Pattern as a separate project. Its chart creates a flat botanical design with golden flowers, a bud and tapered leaves.

Browse our flower and botanical PDF collection for more downloadable designs, or choose another stem from our free crochet flower patterns.