“I must make a unicorn hobby horse one of these days”…I hear you! Well here is a step-by-step guide to help you fulfil that dream. I started following Emily (one of our Wee customers) on Instagram a while ago and love the photos she takes. I was delighted when she agreed to do this blog post. This beautiful unicorn hobby horse would make the most awesome birthday or Xmas gift. I know it’s a bit early to mention Xmas but it would probably take me that long to make something like this so I’d better start now! Lucie X

When you are unsure what to gift your child, why not make something to make your gift giving extra special.

I decided to make my daughter a unicorn hobby horse for her third birthday and here’s how I did it.

You will need:

Sewing machine
Pins
Wooden dowel 7/8″ x 36″
1 metre of fabric for unicorn face, neck & horn
2 x elastic bands
Felt or any other fabric for inner ears
Bubble wrap
Thread
A square patch of fabric from your leftovers
Toy stuffing (these normally come in 250g bags)

These next bits are optional/other ideas:

Pom Pom maker and wool to make pom poms (like I have) or ribbons.

I embroidered the eyes onto a piece of calico, then stitched them onto some felt. Other options are fabric paint/pen or buttons. You should be able to find all of these in hobby craft or your local craft shop.

Once you have all your bits, it’s time to print out your pattern pieces.

Carefully cut out each one and stick together (I’ve added little tabs to your pattern pieces to make it obvious where to stick and hopefully make the pieces easier to put together).

Download the pattern here – Unicorn Pattern

Now fold your fabric in half – we are going to cut out two of each piece as its easier and quicker this way.

Pin your pattern pieces to your fabric making sure your pins go right through both layers of fabric.

Cut these out carefully and unpin after.

Do the same for your ears doing the outer ear twice – making 4 lots of ears, 2x unicorn face 2x unicorn neck.

Next we are going to stitch up the bottom of our unicorn’s neck by 1cm. Make sure to pin this with each opposite curve facing each other like pictured.

Then sew away. This is an inside seam and will be hidden.

Make sure to secure your start and finish stitches using the reverse button on your sewing machine.

Once you’ve sewn those bottom seams up, take 1x  unicorns neck and 1x unicorns face.

Face the inside of the neck to the table. With the unicorn’s nose facing to the bottom of the neck pin the face along keeping it straight.

Then sew 1cm straight through those pins.

Once sewn and opened out your unicorn should look like this.

Iron out the seams and do the same for the other side of your unicorn.

Keeping the pieces inside out, pin together all the way round. Your unicorn should look the same either side.

Again with a 1cm allowance sew all the way around.

Next take out the pins and cut off any excess thread.Turn through your unicorn and iron.

Now we will start on the unicorn horn. Fold over the horn matching each side to each other and pin down.

Slowly sew the horn down making sure you don’t leave a hole at the top. Turn that through – I found poking it with a pencil helped to get the point of the horn.

Using the toy stuffing, stuff as much as possible leaving a little room to sew. Then hand stitch the horn shut, It doesn’t need to be perfect – just secure.

Stitch inner ears to outer ears. Then with the inner ears facing in like pictured- place the outer ear on top. Then pin and stitch.

To make sure the ear takes shape when you turn it through make a few triangle cuts.

Once done turn it through and iron over.

Now bring back your unicorn’s head. Half stuff it using your toy stuffing. This will help give you a better idea as to where your ears and horn will look best. Using your pins work out where you would like to place them.

Then hand stitch these into place.

Do the same for your unicorn’s eyes. I embroidered mine onto calico and added a felt backing. You could embroider some eyes or use buttons or fabric paint.

Once all your unicorn’s features are stitched on its time to start on the wooden dowel.

This part is for safety and to secure the wooden dowel into your hobby unicorn – If you were to skip this step the wooden dowel may go through the top of your unicorn or fall out the bottom.

Tightly wrap the bubble wrap around the top of your wooden dowel making sure not to miss the top. Secure with one elastic band.

I’ve then added a square of fabric over the top to keep the bubble wrap on as tight as possible. It doesn’t need to look perfect. Just to be as tight as possible.

Once you’re happy with that, pop this side into your unicorn’s head and stuff with toy stuffing. Move the stuffing around making sure it’s getting into every space.

Leaving roughly 10-15 cm at the bottom stuffing free, secure it closed. I’ve used wool and made a couple of pom poms. You could do this, use ribbons or whatever you like!

My little girl turned the big 3 so I decided to stitch a number badge using felt and fabric paint. Add anything you like or get your kids involved in the designing/decorating!

And there you have it! A hand made traditional toy, made with love.

Emily is mama to Conan + Arabella & you can follow her lovely Instagram feed here.