Crochet Tulip Flower Pattern | Free Stuffed Tulip Crochet Tutorial

Make a rounded crochet tulip with a softly stuffed flower head, a wired leaf and a wrapped stem. This free stuffed tulip pattern is a compact alternative to an open bloom: the flower is crocheted as one cup, then filled and stitched at the top to create its tulip shape.

Use one stem in a small vase, repeat it in several colours, or mix it with other designs from our free crochet flower patterns. Prefer separate petals and a visible flower centre? Try the blooming tulip tutorial.

For a different project you can download and follow offline, explore our flower and botanical PDF patterns. A tulip-themed C2C recommendation appears at the end of this guide.

Why Make a Stuffed Crochet Tulip?

• One-piece flower head: the rounded cup is worked in single crochet, without separate petals to sew together.
• Adjustable shape: light stuffing gives the bloom volume, while the top stitching creates its petal-like tips.
• Flexible colour choices: try lavender, pink, yellow, cream or a combination that suits your arrangement.

Colour and Bouquet Ideas

Repeat the tulip in a single colour for a simple display, or combine it with smaller flowers and greenery. The mixed bouquets below offer ideas for balancing taller stems, rounded flowers and light filler flowers; their designs differ from the stuffed tulip in this tutorial.

• Handmade gifts: make several stems in the recipient’s favourite colours.
• Indoor decoration: arrange the flowers in a vase, or bind several stems into a small bouquet.
• Mixed arrangements: pair tulips with crochet daisies, roses and leaves.

This version uses wire and a flower rod for a standing stem. For a sewn-on decoration, make a separate version without those supports.

Materials

• Yarn: one flower colour and green for the leaf and stem. Use the same yarn weight for both.
• Crochet hook: 2.5 mm as a starting point; adjust for your yarn and tension.
• Flower rod: approximately 40 cm long × 2 mm diameter.
• Thin craft wire: approximately 0.4 mm diameter, long enough to follow both edges of the leaf with tails left for attachment.
• Fibre filling.
• Tapestry needle, scissors and stitch marker.
• Small amount of hot-melt glue for securing the stem and yarn wrapping.
• Optional floral tape and pliers for preparing the stem support.

Smooth cotton yarn helps show the stitches clearly; wool or a wool blend can give a softer surface. Choose a hook that produces a firm fabric with small gaps so the stuffing stays inside. No specific yarn weight or yarn quantity is established for this pattern.

Difficulty and Gauge

Intermediate: the flower uses basic stitches and increases, while the wired leaf and sewn top require careful finishing. There are no decrease rounds in the flower head.

No fixed gauge or finished flower size is specified. Yarn weight, hook size, tension and the amount of stuffing will all affect the result. Make one flower before preparing a full bouquet.

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 same stitch.
• st / sts: stitch / stitches.
• R: round.
• [number]: crochet stitch count at the end of the round, excluding joining slip stitches and starting chains.

Pattern Notes

• Make one flower cup and one leaf for each stem.
• The flower is worked in joined rounds. Join each round to its first sc with ss, then ch 1 to begin the next round. Do not turn.
• The starting ch 1 and joining ss do not count as stitches. Work the first sc of the next round into the first sc below; do not crochet into the join or starting chain.
• Use a marker in the first sc of each round and move it as you work.
• The leaf is worked along both sides of its foundation chain, with wire enclosed along the edges.
• Leave a long flower-colour tail for shaping and sewing the top, and a green tail for wrapping the leaf attachment.

Step-by-Step Stuffed Tulip Pattern

1. Crochet the Flower Cup

Use your flower-colour yarn. Begin with a magic ring.

1. R1: work 6 sc into the ring. Tighten the ring and join with ss to the first sc. [6]
2. R2: ch 1, inc in each st around. Join with ss. [12]
3. R3: ch 1, repeat (1 sc, inc) 6 times. Join with ss. [18]
4. R4: ch 1, repeat (1 sc, inc, 1 sc) 6 times. Join with ss. [24]
5. R5: ch 1, repeat (3 sc, inc) 6 times. Join with ss. [30]
6. R6: ch 1, repeat (2 sc, inc, 2 sc) 6 times. Join with ss. [36]
7. R7–R17: ch 1, work 1 sc in each st around and join with ss. Repeat for all 11 rounds. [36 in every round]

Fasten off, leaving approximately 40–50 cm of yarn for sewing the top. Leave the cup open for the stem support and stuffing. Weave in the magic-ring tail at the bottom.

2. Crochet the Wired Leaf

Use green yarn. Prepare a piece of thin wire to follow both sides of the leaf, leaving tails at the base. Crochet over the wire as you work so it is held beneath the stitches.

1. Foundation: ch 31. Starting in the second ch from the hook, work 1 ss. This is the leaf’s base anchor.
2. First side: in the next 28 chains, work 2 sc, 3 hdc, 18 dc, 3 hdc and 2 sc, placing one stitch in each chain.
3. Tip: in the last remaining foundation chain, work (1 sc, ch 1, 1 sc). Curve the wire around the tip without a sharp exposed end.
4. Second side: rotate the leaf to work along the unused side of the foundation chain. Do not work back into the tops of the stitches just made. In the next 28 chain positions, work 2 sc, 3 hdc, 18 dc, 3 hdc and 2 sc.
5. Finish: join with ss at the base anchor. Fasten off, leaving a tail to wrap the wire tails and attach the leaf to the stem.

Count check: each side has 28 stitches. The tip adds 2 sc and 1 ch, giving 58 sc/hdc/dc stitches plus the tip chain, excluding the base and joining slip stitches. The leaf shape comes from changing stitch height and working around the chain; it does not use decrease stitches.

Assemble the Stuffed Tulip

1. Secure the Stem and Add Stuffing

1. Prepare the support: before inserting it, bend the top of a flexible flower rod into a small closed loop. If your rod cannot be bent, bind a short loop of craft wire securely to its top. Cover the wire ends with yarn or floral tape.
2. Insert from inside: guide the lower end of the rod down through the centre of the cup’s base, leaving the loop inside the flower. Ease it between stitches rather than forcing it through the yarn.
3. Secure the base: sew around the support with matching yarn, or use a small amount of glue inside the base. Let any glue cool before continuing.
4. Stuff lightly: add small amounts of fibre filling around the support. Keep the cup rounded but leave the upper rim soft enough to pinch and sew. Keep the support loop below the rim.

2. Sew the Tulip Top

Use the long flower-colour tail and a tapestry needle. This closure joins selected points at the centre while leaving the sections between them to form rounded tips.

1. Mark four rim points: on the 36-stitch opening, place markers at stitches 1, 10, 19 and 28, counting from the first sc of R17. Each point is 9 stitches from the next.
2. Join the first opposing pair: bring points 1 and 19 together at the centre. Pass the needle through both points and make a few small stitches to hold them together.
3. Join the second opposing pair: bring points 10 and 28 to the same centre and stitch them to the first pair. Adjust the four sections between the marked points so they form an even tulip top.
4. Finish the closure: secure the centre with another small stitch, check that no stuffing protrudes, then weave the tail into the flower. Do not sew the entire rim into a flat seam.

If the rim will not reach the centre comfortably, remove a little stuffing before tightening the stitches. Shape the top gently rather than pulling the sewing yarn hard.

3. Wrap the Stem and Attach the Leaf

1. Secure green yarn just below the flower and wrap it closely around the rod, covering the attachment at the base.
2. At the desired leaf position, place the leaf’s wire tails alongside the rod, with the leaf pointing upward and outward.
3. Bind the wire tails to the rod with the leaf’s yarn tail, then continue wrapping the stem over the attachment.
4. Cover all wire ends. Secure the final yarn end with a small amount of glue and allow it to cool.
5. Adjust the leaf and flower shape, then place the finished tulip in your arrangement.

Make a Coordinated Arrangement

Repeat the stuffed tulip in a few related colours, then add contrasting shapes. Roses provide fuller blooms, small flowers fill gaps, and rounded greenery softens the outline. The photos below are arrangement references; these additional stems are separate projects.

Find more flowers, filler designs and leaves in our free crochet flower pattern collection.

Continue with a Tulip-Themed PDF Project

Enjoy the spring theme on a larger scale with the Bunny Teacup Tulips C2C Crochet Pattern. It combines tulips, a bunny, a decorative teacup and foliage in a two-colour design.

Bunny Teacup Tulips C2C PDF Bundle

A separate flat C2C blanket project: this download is not a PDF version of the stuffed tulip stem above.

The bundle includes 5 English PDFs: a printable chart, row cards, compact row-by-row instructions, boxed written instructions and an illustrated C2C technique guide using US crochet terms.

The design uses White and Rose Red on a 240 × 340-block chart, worked over 579 diagonal C2C rows. Finished dimensions depend on your yarn, hook and block size.

View the tulip-themed PDF bundle →

Digital pattern files only. Yarn, tools and finished items are not included.

Looking for another floral design? Browse our flower and botanical PDF patterns, or return to the free tutorials to make more stems for your bouquet.