Hobby Horsie Sticks (Miniature Version)

These sold really well at the Renaissance Festival.  They're easy to make and look pretty neat.  I just wish there was a good plastic version of the stick, since the 'breakage' factor is fairly high when kids step on these after they're bought.

 

I did my own design for the horse head, keeping it very basic, a head with a wide neck that goes a bit longer than you think you need (once it's stuffed it's 3D and that shortens the length).  I did them in different colors and prints, the blue ones with black manes worked best.  Eyes were 12 mm black beads hand sewn on.  The ears were felt that matched the body color.  The mane was what added some cost to the toy since I bought the bushy trim at JoAnn Fabrics, but a person could do their own yarn manes or use something else, even a strip of fake fur folded over and sewn in down the spine area. 

 

The sticks were 1/4" wide wood dowels.  They ran me 59 cents each at the hardware store. Look for strong ones, with no cracks running the length of the dowel.  I don't have a lot of woodworking tools so what I did was 'cut' each dowel in half by marking with a pencil where the mid section is, laying that on the side of the kitchen table and 'cracking' the dowel down with the other hand, breaking it there at the mark. 

 

No sanding necessary.  The broken end will be handled just fine -- but the next stage is painting. I used black acrylic paint though have also used a pint can of outdoor black satin paint from the hardware store.  Give the sticks two coats to make sure there's no streaking. It dries pretty quickly. I'd do 20 sticks at a time, painting half, sticking them around the living room to dry, testing the dryness, doing the other half, then repeating the process. It sort of made the inside of the living room look like a porcupine. 

 

Once the two coats are done, bring out a container of Elmer's Glue and a stack of rubber bands.  Eyeball the height of the horse head and you're going to dip the cut/broken end of the wood dowel into the Elmer's Glue bottle to a depth less than that.  About 2" is fine on a 4" tall horse head.  Pull the end of the dowel out of the glue bottle, wrap a wad of fiberfill around the glue end making sure enough goes over the TOP of the dowel to cushion the end, and rubber band that in place. 

 

Let that dry overnight. Leave the rubber band on, it won't hurt anything.  I like to put 'dangles' on the Horsie Sticks to fancy them up.  Take some 1/8th and 1/4th inch wide ribbon in colors that compliment the horse head and cut three lengths 2 feet long.  Hold them all together as a set and tie a knot in the center.  Now take the horse head, stuff the muzzle and a bit of the top of the head, insert your padded end wood dowel, use a pencil to push in enough extra fiberfill around the dowel to finish stuffing the neck, and then invert the entire thing.  Using a needle and thread you now hand stitch around the base of the neck, partially pull that closed, insert the knotted end of the ribbons, pull the thread closed (pushing up the raw ends of the fabric so they're inside), take several stitches through the ribbon section to lock that firmly in place so they don't pull out, and tie off the thread and clip.

 

The glue keeps the wood dowel in place with the fiberfill, the horsie head will NOT pull off now.  Sew on the bead eyes, add the ears in the appropriate place, and you're done!

 

You can also fancy the head up with beads or other decorations if you prefer.  Or do a unicorn variant with perhaps some fake flowers behind the ear on one side.  Let your imagination soar. 

 

These not only make pretty kids toys, they are great decorations for flower bouquets, make nicely decorative plant sticks in pots, etc.