Follow these simple instructions and soon you'll have a hobby horse for your child. Kids can help out with this craft too, especially with designing the horse's face.
Hobby Horse Instructions
Materials needed:
- a 1 inch thick piece of dowel, cut to the right length for your toddler's height
- one heavy-weight sock
- a bag of stuffing
- a pair of googly eyes or buttons
- a ball of thick yarn
- various colors of felt and fabric for the ears, nostrils and any other decorations
- a large needle
Make the Horse's Body Using A Dowel
Cut the dowel to the appropriate length for your toddler's height. Have your child straddle the dowel with one end behind him just touching the floor.
Make a mark on the dowel wherever your child can comfortable grasp the "neck" of the horse. Cut the dowel about 6 inches (the length of your sock tube) above this line.
About two inches above the line where you child will hold on, use a sharp knife to make a groove in the wood all the way around. This groove is where the horse's neck will attach.
Make a Sock Horse Head
Begin filling your sock with stuffing. Make sure to get the toe and food portion nice and full, as that will be the horse's face. Remember that stuffing tends to compact, so the more full the better.
Continue stuffing the sock until approximately half of the tube part is full. Leave enough room to insert the dowel right up to the heel of the sock.
Once the sock is stuffed, it's time to create the horse's face. Be creative here! Sew some buttons or googly eyes on to the sides of the head. Make sure to sew the pieces on even if you glue them, since if they fall off they are a choking hazard for toddlers.
Use felt to make nostrils and a mouth. Glue them on. For ears that stand up, use a firm material, like leather or denim. Sew the ears at their base and weave a line of stitching through their backs to give them some shape.
Make a mane using yarn and a large needle, weaving the yarn into the sock. Alternately, find some old upholstery fringes and sew those in place.
Add any other features you'd like, such as a colored patch or a bridle.
Join Dowel and Sock To Make A Stick Horse
Insert the dowel into the tube of the sock until it meets the sock's heel. Hold it in place and finish stuffing the sock all around the dowel. The more padding you can get in there, the better.
Leave about an inch of sock unstuffed at the bottom, so you will have room to tie the sock on.
Finally, use a heavy piece of twine to tie the sock in place, using the groove you cut into the wood to keep the sock from sliding. You could also add some glue to keep the twine in place.
If the head loosens off, just tie it back in place and the horse is ready to go.
Great Toy Horse For A Toddler
Using simple materials like a piece of dowel or a broom handle, a sock and some decorations, you can create a great stick horse for a young child.
Children will love this easy-to-make hobby horse. The stick horse is the perfect finishing touch for a cowboy costume, or great for playing rodeo around the house.
Sarah Turner - Sarah K. Turner's writing has been published in the Utne Reader and Event magazine, where she was a winner of their 2006 annual Creative ...
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