Horsie Sticks

I've located some photos of what I used to make for Pennsic War -- horse headed sticks with ribbons.  They were very easily done too. 

Get yourself some black acrylic paint.  Take a 1/4" wood dowel (they have yellow painted ends here, but ask at any hardware store about which are that width, the thinner ones might look nice but they break almost immediately so use 1/4" ones).  The dowels cost me 69 cents each.  I measured to see where the midpoint was on the length, set the dowel on a table with a sharp edge and pressed down to break the dowel into two equal lengths. It avoided me having to find a saw to do this part.

Paint the dowels, give them 2 coats so they're solid black with no streaking.  When dry take a bottle of Elmer's Glue and remove the top. Dip the broken end of the wood dowel into the glue so the last 2" are fully coated with the glue.  Then take a small wad of stuffing and wrap it around the glue area making sure the end is covered too, so it does not poke out the top of the horse's head and damage the fabric there.   I used a rubber band around the stuffing to keep it tightly in place.  No need to remove the rubber band later either, just leave it on.  Let it dry completely.

Take 1/4" wide ribbon, you can get spools of it for 50 cents each at JoAnn Fabrics. I used four colors, each strand was as long as a wood dowel, fold the ribbons in half and knot them in the middle so you have 8 strands all attached at one end. Set aside.

The main pattern for the head was just an outline of a horse's head about 5" tall and 4" wide.  Sew it with right sides together but leave open the bottom (which I sort of rounded).  Turn, stuff the muzzle, set aside.  Cut out two felt ears that match the body color, set aside.  Eyes are two 8mm faceted black plastic beads.


Slide the stuffing wrapped end of the wood dowel into the head. Stuff more fiberfill around it with a pencil to fully stuff the head section.  Take a needle and thread and do a running gather stitch around the bottom of the head, slowly tighten it as you tuck the ends of the fabric up inside for a clean look, adding more stuffing if needed. Before you close the bottom completely, insert the knotted end of the ribbons in and stitch the opening completely closed, MAKING SURE you go through the ribbons section at least twice so they don't pull out if someone yanks on them.


Add the ears and eyes with hand sewing.  For the mane, take a feather boa (JoAnn Fabrics has them for $5 or so, you only need a 4 or 5" length so one boa will make you at least 8 horsie sticks) and cut a length that's 5" long. Use your fingers to pull any loose feathers off the ends - it's best to do this part outside.  Now take your Elmer's Glue and do a thick line from the forehead down the backbone to just above the base of the neck (see photos).  Before it runs all over the place press the feather boa section down firmly and then let it dry overnight.  It will hold the mane in place very well.


With the bottom picture I used woven fringe, but I didn't like the effect as much as the feather boa style.  The woven fringe was sewn in down the back of the head when I machine sewed that part of the project (so there was no glue involved in attaching it).


Be creative with colors!  Fantasy horses are fine.  Unicorns with attached horns work too.  I've tried sewn horns, felt horns and even got some of those Christmas decorations with the plastic 'icicles' for horns** - which look fantastic by the way but they're dangerous if given to kids so beware! -- and those were just some of the variations you can try.


** If you DO use the plastic icicles, you leave an opening in the forehead to slide them in from underneath, and treat the base of the icicle just like the wood dowel, where you dab it in glue and wrap stuffing around it so it's larger than the opening and can't be pulled out. When dry, slide the horn up into the open forehead stitching and check that the opening is tight, you may have to take a hand stitch or two there to make sure of that.