Free Fall Crochet Patterns for Cozy Autumn Projects

By Jan Bay

This collection of fall crochet patterns will keep you busy from the first cool days of autumn straight through Halloween and Thanksgiving. The group brings together my free crochet pumpkins, harvest characters, seasonal appliqués, baby projects and other autumn designs, so you can find a quick little motif to hand stitch or a larger project to settle in with during the time of year when cozy is the rule of thumb.

Worsted Weight Yarn for Fall Crochet Projects

Featured Fall Crochet Patterns

Fall Crochet Patterns for Leaves and Acorns

Leaves are probably the easiest place to start if you want something unmistakably autumn without tying the project to Halloween or Thanksgiving. They work on their own, in little groups or as part of something larger, and you can change the whole look just by changing the yarn colors.

My fall crochet leaf pattern gives you three different shapes to work with: a broad maple leaf, a longer lobed oak leaf and a separate acorn. I like having more than one leaf shape available because a pile of identical leaves can start looking a little too orderly. Mix the maple and oak leaves, turn some at an angle and tuck an acorn or two between them. That's enough.

The maple leaf is the larger, showier shape, while the oak leaf is narrower and easier to fit into a garland, wreath or the edge of another project. The acorn gives you a smaller piece for filling the spaces between them. Use rusty red, pumpkin, mustard, olive and brown if you want the traditional fall palette, or soften the colors for a nursery project.

You don't have to save these for decorations either. One leaf can be sewn to a tote or blanket corner. A small group can dress up a plain basket. Make several and you have the start of a fall garland without committing yourself to one enormous crochet project.

Crochet Pumpkin Patterns

If you came here looking for pumpkins, there are several very different ways to make one. Pick the project first. A stuffed pumpkin, flat appliqué, baby blanket and rattle may share the same fall subject, but they're not interchangeable patterns.

Stuffed Crochet Pumpkins

The free crochet pumpkin pattern is the one I'd choose when you want a freestanding pumpkin for a basket, shelf or fall display. Because it's three dimensional, it gives you the most obvious little pumpkin shape and can be made again in different colors and sizes for a grouped arrangement.

Don't feel as though every pumpkin has to be bright orange. Rust, muted terracotta, olive, mustard and even a soft neutral can work together as long as there's enough variation for the individual pumpkins to show.

Flat Pumpkin Appliqué

Use the crochet pumpkin appliqué pattern when the pumpkin needs to lie flat. This one has a ribbed orange pumpkin, a small olive leaf at the top and two autumn leaves arranged along the lower side, so it reads as a harvest design rather than just an orange oval.

It works nicely on a blanket, bag, sweatshirt or wall hanging. You can also leave off some of the surrounding leaves when you want a simpler pumpkin. I wouldn't keep piling on more embellishments after that. The ribbed pumpkin should still be the part you notice first.

Crochet Harvest Characters

Harvest characters give you somewhere to go after pumpkins and leaves, especially if you want a project with a little more personality.

Classic Crochet Scarecrow

The free crochet scarecrow pattern is a much bigger project than a leaf or appliqué. He has the floppy patched hat, straw-colored yarn hair, overalls, embroidered face and boots that make him immediately recognizable as a traditional fall scarecrow.

This is the one I'd save for a day when you're in the mood to settle in with a project. There are separate pieces to crochet and assemble, and that's part of what gives the finished scarecrow his loose, slightly rumpled harvest look. For another full-size harvest character, make my Mrs. Scarecrow crochet doll pattern with her floppy hat, yarn hair and patched country clothing. If you want something you can finish quickly, make leaves or an appliqué instead.

Turkey Baby Booties

For Thanksgiving, the crochet turkey baby booties pattern takes the seasonal idea in a completely different direction. These are a better choice when you're making something specifically for a fall baby rather than decorating the house.

I would keep the rest of a Thanksgiving baby outfit simple with these. The turkey detail is already the fun part, so it doesn't need to compete with several other novelty pieces.

Halloween Crochet Patterns

Once you want bats, ghosts, witches, skulls and haunted houses, go straight to the Halloween collections. I've kept those projects together so this fall hub doesn't turn into one enormous Halloween page.

The broader Halloween crochet patterns collection is the place to browse complete Halloween projects and decide what you want to make. Start there when you aren't sure whether you want an appliqué, character or another type of project.

If you already know you want a small flat motif, skip directly to the free crochet Halloween appliqué patterns. That collection includes bats, a ghost, pumpkin, skull, bat wings and the much more detailed haunted house.

The haunted house is the focal piece in that group. A little bat can fill a corner of a project, but the haunted house has enough going on to carry most of the design by itself. I wouldn't crowd it with several other large motifs.

Fall Crochet Appliqués for Bigger Projects

Appliqués are useful when you like a seasonal design but don't necessarily want the whole project to be shaped like a pumpkin, leaf or Halloween character. Crochet the background piece first, then use the appliqué to decide how much fall you want to add.

The maple leaf, oak leaf and acorn patterns are the easiest to use this way because they aren't tied to one holiday. They can go on a blanket, wall hanging, tote, organizer or garland and stay out from September right through Thanksgiving.

The pumpkin appliqué with fall leaves sits somewhere in the middle. It can look like Halloween with the right colors around it, but nothing about the design requires Halloween. Put it with olive, rust and brown and it becomes a straight harvest project.

If you want to see what happens when several woodland and autumn appliqués are used as part of one practical project, take a look at the crochet wall organizer pattern. That design uses woodland animals along with fall leaf and acorn details on the pockets, so the appliqués are doing more than sitting by themselves as decorations.

My preference with appliqués is to leave some background showing. You don't need to cover every open spot. One good pumpkin or a small cluster of leaves is usually easier to see and appreciate than ten little motifs fighting for space.

Fall Baby Crochet Projects

Some fall projects make more sense when they're designed around the baby item from the beginning instead of adding an autumn motif afterward.

Pumpkin Baby Blanket

The pumpkin crochet blanket pattern starts with a textured rectangular baby blanket and adds six flat pumpkin appliqués. That gives you an actual usable blanket first, with enough pumpkin detail to make it feel seasonal without covering the entire surface.

This is also one of the easier fall designs to change with color. Orange pumpkins are the obvious choice, but peach, dusty rose, rust and golden brown can be mixed in while the shapes still read clearly as pumpkins.

Crochet Pumpkin Baby Rattle

The free crochet pumpkin rattle pattern makes a ribbed stuffed pumpkin above a wooden ring, with a short stem, green leaf and embroidered face. There's also a Jack o lantern face option if you're making it specifically for Halloween.

If you're making something intended for a baby to handle, follow the construction and safety notes on that pattern rather than treating a decorative pumpkin pattern as a toy pattern. Decorative projects and baby items don't have the same job.

Turkey Booties for Thanksgiving

The turkey baby booties are the most Thanksgiving-specific baby project in this collection. I'd choose those when the holiday itself is part of the reason you're making the gift. For something that can be used throughout the season, the pumpkin blanket or pumpkin rattle gives you a longer fall window.

Choosing Yarn for Fall Crochet Projects

You don't need a special kind of yarn just because the project is for fall. Follow the yarn weight and hook size specified in the individual pattern, especially when the finished dimensions or stuffing matter.

If you're substituting yarn, compare the weight rather than relying only on words such as soft, baby or chunky on the label. The Craft Yarn Council Standard Yarn Weight System is a useful reference for the numbered yarn-weight categories, typical gauges and hook-size ranges.

Then pay attention to what you're actually making. A stuffed pumpkin needs fabric firm enough to hold its shape. A blanket needs more drape. A flat appliqué needs enough stitch definition for the edges and shaping to stay recognizable. One yarn doesn't have to be the answer for every project on this page.

Color is the easy part. Pumpkin orange, rust, mustard, olive, brown and deep red will give you the classic autumn mix. You can also pull the palette back to two or three shades if that's what suits the project. There is no rule that says a fall crochet project has to contain every color of every leaf seen on the trees in the month of October.

Where to Go Next

If you want to keep browsing after the seasonal projects here, head back to my free baby crochet patterns hub. That's where you'll find the larger collection of blankets, loveys, appliqués, rattles and other crochet projects that aren't limited to autumn.

For fall, though, I'd pick the project by how much time you want to spend. Make a leaf or acorn when you want something small. Choose a pumpkin or appliqué for a medium project. Save the scarecrow, blanket or more detailed Halloween designs for the days when you're ready to settle in and crochet for a while.