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• • • • •
Time
4h00

Very cute little horsie, great gift for a child!
I made this hobby horse as a christmas present for my little niece. My design is pretty girly- you can of course make this a boy-suitable toy by going brown and jeans with the fabric, make it nice and cowboy! Also, gimme a shout if you need templates.

I look forward to seeing your versions!

Posted by Sarah P. from Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany • Published See Sarah P.'s 5 projects »
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  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 1
    Step 1

    Gather your stuff.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 2
    Step 2

    Take the big piece of fabric that you want to make the head from, fold it double and iron.

    (The ironing is optional but I find I do get much tidier results when I take the trouble to iron beforehand)

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 3
    Step 3

    Take your template and draw around it on the fabric.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 4
    Step 4

    Do the same with the ears:

    - bigger ear pieces from the same fabric as the head (white here)

    - slightly smaller ear pieces from your second fabric (pink here)

    Make sure you folded those double too so in the end you get

    -1 head piece
    -2 bigger ear pieces
    -2 smaller ear pieces

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 5
    Step 5

    Pin the two layers together...

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 6
    Step 6

    ... and cut them out...

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 7
    Step 7

    ... so you get this!

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 8
    Step 8

    Now, take out your sewing machine (or curse yourself that you don't have one and do this by hand ;)).

    HEAD:
    Sew all around the head, leaving open only the neck part.

    EARS:
    Now take one piece of each size and fabric (one white and one pink piece) and sew them together, leaving open the bottom part.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 9
    Step 9

    You should now have something like this.

    Put these aside for a moment- we'll now make the stick.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 10
    Step 10

    At the top part of your stick (where the head will be later), make a little dent all around. This will be to fasten the head later, so it doesn't come off when the cowboys and -gals are riding the horse later.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 11
    Step 11

    Now, to make this toy safe, I decided to give the top of the stick some extra stuffing. We'll make a little pouch full off cotton wool and tie it to the top of the stick.

    Take some fabric (any fabric, doesn't have to match the other one as it will be inside the horse and not visible) and draw a circle on it. I used a plate as a template.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 12
    Step 12

    .. and cut it out.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 13
    Step 13

    With some strong yarn, stitch all around it as you can see in the photo.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 14
    Step 14

    Stuff it and pull it together.

    You can see I'm extra paranoid so I taped some more cotton wool around the top.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 15
    Step 15

    Place the little ball on the stick, pull it all the way shut and stitch, pull and twist it in place. Remember, this part doesn't have to look pretty.

    Put aside for now.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 16
    Step 16

    Back to the ears. We don't want them to come out floppy so we're going to put little pieces of cardboard into them so they'll stand upright on the horse's head later.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 17
    Step 17

    Put the cardbpeard in the ear, fold under the edge and sew it shut. Do the same with the other ear.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 18
    Step 18

    Attach to horse!

    You don't want to rush this part. Take some time to consider where excactly you want the ears as this will determine the expression of your horse.

    To make them stand up nice and straight, stitch them in place from both sides.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 19
    Step 19

    Now for the mane. Take some wool and a big needle and prepare- this is the fumbly part.

    Please consider using a cotton wool and not a sheep's. It's just as pretty and no-one had to suffer for it!

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 20
    Step 20

    While you make the mane, close the neck with a safety pin so the cotton wool doesn't fall out.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 21
    Step 21

    Make alternating stitches: one normal, one a big loop that you hold up with your finger to make sure they're roughly the same length.

    This is a bit hard to describe so I made some more pictures of this step.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 22
    Step 22

    I made rows of about 6-8 locks of hair, spaced about a centimetre apart.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 23
    Step 23

    I started with the fringe and continued down to the neck.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 24
    Step 24

    ... and the horsie has hair!

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 25
    Step 25

    Now, design your eyes.

    Depending on whether you want a more cowboy-y boy horse or a girly unicorn horse, you will need a matching eye. I just googled for pictures of horses and unicorns and doodled until I found something I liked.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 26
    Step 26

    Cut out the paper template for the eye, place it on the head and lightly (!) mark where it should go. Remember to turn the template around before marking the other eye.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 27
    Step 27

    Stitch the eye.

    I am not terribly talented as far as embroidery is concerned but it's supposed to look hand-made, right? You could probably also draw or paint the eye on if you prefer.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 28
    Step 28

    Add a button for the eye.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 29
    Step 29

    Make the nostrils.

    I simply stitched some wonky circles, you can just as easily sew on a bit of fabric, or paint them.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 30
    Step 30

    ...

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 31
    Step 31

    Now, fold under the hem of the neck and sew all around.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 32
    Step 32

    After you have done that, take a needle and some more firm yarn and make some big stitches all around (just like we did earlier with the pouch).

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 33
    Step 33

    Now, put the stick in and stuff the rest of the head.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 34
    Step 34

    Draw shut and stitch and...

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 35
    Step 35

    .. tadaah! almost done.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 36
    Step 36

    At this point though, the stick will still be able to turn inside the head. We want it to stay put so wind somemore yarn around the end as firmly as you can. I also used some glue here, just to make sure.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 37
    Step 37

    Take a short piece of the ribbon you're going to use for the harness and glue it over the end to cover up this rather unpretty part.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 38
    Step 38

    Now, to conceal this some more we'll make a ribbon from the secondary (pink) fabric. You could safe yourself the trouble by simply buying some matching ribbon, which only occured to me after I was done.

    Cut out a long piece of the fabric (about 1m by 4 cm)

    For the boy horses, you'll probably want to leave this step out. .

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 39
    Step 39

    Sew it to a long tube, leaving open one of the ends.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 40
    Step 40

    Turn inside-out. This is very slow-going and annoying. I really should have just bought some ribbon.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 41
    Step 41

    Take the ribbon you made and make a bow over it and sew in place.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 42
    Step 42

    Now all we have left to do is the harness.

    Take your ribbon and wrap it around the head:

    -first over the nose
    -then under the chin
    -then, leaving a big loop for the child to hang on to, over the mane

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 43
    Step 43

    Sew in place at the sides, we'll cover this up with a button in a minute.

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 44
    Step 44

    ... and you're done!

  • How to make a hobby horse. Hobbyhorse - Step 45
    Step 45

    Add the button.

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Comments

Jet H.
Jet H. · Haarlem, North Holland, NL · 108 projects
when i was 18th i have made one of my self too, love yours!!!
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