Hello! I'm Sammy from Wakefield, UK, and no, this is not Jurassic Park, this is my friend, Bombshell.
(All stitches in English)
To start with, make a magic ring, and work 8 single crochets (sc) into it. Continue the rows around it until the circle is big enough for your tortoise. To make it curve around them, work 2 sc into each loop on row 2; then 1 sc, 2 sc, 1 sc... for row 3; 1 sc, 1sc, 2 sc, 1 sc, 1 sc... for row 4; 1 sc, 1 sc, 1 sc, 2 sc, 1 sc, 1 sc, 1 sc... for row 5 and so on. Bombshell is super tiny so it only took a few rows!
When the circle is finished, chain 1 and work 4 sc into the next 4 loops, turn and work 4 sc in every row to make a strap that fits under the tortoise with a bit of overlap. I left a gap with a buttonhole at the end.
Then, tie the wool off and use a slip stitch (ss) to go around the edge with a different colour wool.
Attach a button to the opposite side.
To make the pointy plates on the back, do the following:
ch 5, turn
skip 1, 4 sc into the next 4 loops, turn
ch 1, 1 sc, chain 2 sc together (sc2tog), 1 sc, turn
ch1, 3 sc in next 3 loops, turn
ch1, sc2tog, 1sc, turn
ch1, 2 sc in next 2 loops, turn
ch1, sc2tog, turn
ch1, sc, turn x 2
ch1, 2 sc in same loop, turn
ch1, 2 sc in next 2 loops, turn
ch1, 2 sc in same loop, 1 sc, turn
ch1, 3 sc in each loop, turn
ch1, sc, 2 sc in same loop, sc, turn
ch 1, 4 sc in each loop. Tie off.
It should look like this:
Then use the excess wool to stitch up the sides and turn inside out.
Stitch the points along the back. Done!
Thank you for reading my tutorial, I'm pretty new at this so any feedback would be welcome :-)