ride little pony

i've had several questions about the stick horses we made for miller's birthday party, so i thought why not do a tutorial! when i decided to make these, i searched the internet for help and then combined all the ideas i found to create this stick horse. i wanted it to be safe for the age group (mostly 2-4 year olds) and look like a horse (apparently not a prerequisite for everyone). so, to make one of these cute little guys, you will need the following:

a stick (i used a 3/4" dowel, but if you had a mop or broom handle, you could cut it down)

a tennis ball

a boat load of stuffing

a sock

seam binding, ribbon, ricrac, or the like

hot glue gun

buttons

felt

needle & thread & scissors

let's begin!

cut an X in the tennis ball and place it on the end of the stick.

this is to prevent someone from loosing an eye when the stick horses turn into swords, or when unsuspecting babies get caught in the line of fire.

fill your sock with lots o' stuffing until you reach the heel.

place stuffing around the tennis ball and shove (because you cannot do this gingerly) inside the sock. then, continue stuffing until you like the way it looks.

it should look something like this.

i cut the band of the sock off and used double sided tape to secure the sock for the next step. 

then, i hot glued seam binding (or whatever you want) around and around to secure the sock to the stick.

viola!

before the party, i sketched the mane for bullseye from the dvd case and then created a pattern. i folded a piece of felt in half and cut around the pattern to make this crazy tribal looking thing. then, i drew and cut some triangular shaped ears. (sorry there is no picture of the ears.)

at the party, each child picked a mane, 2 ears and some eyes (buttons) and i (and some crafty friends) whip stitched them to the sock. i began stitching the mane at the center of the heel and followed it down the tube. the ears were stitched about an inch away from the mane on either side. i pinched the triangle together and sewed it at the center of the heel. (warning: the phrase blood, sweat and tears may be applied here. pinching the ears together makes it a little difficult to sew through.) and, the eyes are tied on with embroidery thread.

addy is helping model her horse to show the placement of the pieces. once they were finished, we all agreed that they needed bridles. so, we grabbed the ribbon bin and started gluing.

to create the bridle, we glued two circles around the nose. then, we glued one long piece of ribbon or ricrac on the second piece of ribbon from one side to the other (see above photo.) and, finally . . .

ride 'em, cowboy (and cowgirls)!