Toys that stimulate imagination and physical activity at the same time are the perfect gift for children in our technology-driven age. The hobbyhorse is one of the most popular children's toys that little ones can play with both at home and outdoors. How can you make a hobbyhorse yourself, what materials can be used and many beautiful DIY ideas can be found in the following article.
What can you make a hobby horse for children out of?
Hobbyhorses are a toy that children particularly like and are suitable for fun games. You can make one out of different materials and surprise your child with a great toy. Whether for a birthday, Christmas, another occasion or just because, your little one would certainly look forward to it.
You can make hobbyhorses out of paper, fabric, cardboard and many other materials. If you are good with wood as a material for crafting, then you can use it. To do this, you need suitable tools, such as a jigsaw and drill, with which the horse's head is made. This idea is a little more complicated to do yourself, but it looks particularly beautiful and is only made from natural materials.
If you would like to make a simple hobby horse, then you will find many ideas below that you can easily do at home. Even the children can help with the DIY projects when crafting with fabric or paper.
Simple hobbyhorse made from a sock
One of the most popular materials for children's crafts is socks. They have a shape reminiscent of a horse's head and can easily be transformed into pretty horses.
Make a horse head and attach it to the stick
The most important part of the hobbyhorse is the horse's head. Everything else is the handle, for which you can just use the old broom handle. To make a horse head, you should consider a few important features. Eyes, ears, mouth, mane and halter play the most important roles here.
Depending on how big your hobby horse should be, you will first need a sock of the appropriate size. For this we recommend using men's socks around sizes 42-45. You can choose the color and pattern yourself. To turn the sock into a horse head, you must first fill it with filling material, such as cotton wool.
Once you have filled the sock with cotton wool, attach the horse's head to the stick or broom handle. Now take the stem and insert it deep into the filled sock. Then tie the end of the sock tightly to the broom handle with wool or string. Fasten again with adhesive tape if necessary.
If you would like to make a horse's head, you should now design a face. Two contrasting buttons in different sizes can be used for the eyes. Simply sew the buttons onto the horse's head using a needle and thread. Pay attention to the symmetry between them.
Next, you should sew ears. These are easiest to make from brown felt. To get the right shape of the ears, you can use a template or simply cut out the fabric as shown in the picture. Then fold the bottom part of each ear and sew it to the heel of the sock.
If you would like to create a mouth for your hobbyhorse, you can sew one with a needle and thread. To do this, use thread in a contrasting color and sew a line as a mouth to the front of the face. Now you can start with the mane.
Make a mane out of wool
In order for the toy to look like a real horse, it needs a mane. To do this, you need wool in a matching color and a rectangular object, such as a book. Wrap the wool around the book several times until you get the desired thickness.
Then sew the middle with a wool thread and finally cut along the sides. Tie the middle part tightly and finally sew the finished mane behind the ears. Now the horse head is finished.
Bridle made of shoelaces
So that your children can “ride” the hobby horse, you should make the reins. A simple shoelace can be used for this. Simply fold the shoelace in half, bring it through the horse's muzzle and tie a knot underneath. You can fix the knot with a few stitches and you're done!
DIY unicorn hobbyhorse made of felt
If you make the hobbyhorse instead of buying it, you can choose the design yourself and fulfill the child's wishes. Little girls, for example, are excited about unicorns and ponies and would definitely look forward to such a special toy. AEinhornis easiest to sew from white felt or polar.
You can use the same material for the horn and ears. The horn can be easily sewn like a cone and filled with cotton wool to stay firmly on the horse's head. It is sewn onto the middle of the forehead between the ears.
Another difference between the simple hobbyhorse and the unicorn is the mane. Unicorns are mythical animals that are depicted with a colorful mane. You can use wool in rainbow colors to create a colorful mane.
Cheap ideas from leftover fabrics
When making a horse head, you can also use scraps of fabric and other recycled materials. For example, sleeves and legs from old clothing can be used instead of socks, and old lace curtains are perfect for the mane.
You can decorate the homemade hobbyhorses together with the children and make them more personal. Rhinestones, leather, sleigh bells, loops and anything you have at home as embellishments are suitable for this.
Cardboard hobbyhorse
Another great idea for material is cardboard. You can use this to make pretty hobbyhorses with the children and decorate them with paper or pens. Instead of a stick, you can use cardboard rolls or shipping tubes in this case.
These cute little horses can be made from a simple cereal box. To do this, you should turn the box inside out. Then fold one of the bottom corners to form a horse's head. Finally, make the ears, face and mane out of any material and attach the hobbyhorse to the shipping tube.
Craft idea with cardboard
You can make it even easier with cardboard. Find a suitable horse head template and use it to cut two identical horse heads out of cardboard. Then use black acrylic paint and a brush to paint the same face and ears on the horse's heads.
You can use colorful adhesive tape to make the cardboard hobby horse's mane. Tape the insides of the horse's heads with the tape and cut the pieces lengthwise to get the mane effect. Finally, glue both sides of the horse and the stick together and decorate as desired.
Simple paper idea for children's birthday parties
Hobby horses are very popular with children and are perfect as small party favors at a child's birthday party. If you are planning a horse birthday party for your little one, you can make several crafts and organize fun games with them.
You can also make a hobbyhorse quickly and easily out of paper. To do this, you will need a suitable template for the horse's head, which you can color with the child. You can use tape or wool for the mane and cardboard is best for the handle.
Making a horse swimming noodle for kids
Pool noodles are a popular material for making creative indoor and outdoor toys. You can also use it to make a nice hobby horse with which the children can spend fun time outdoors. For this DIY horse swimming noodle project you will need a broom handle, adhesive tape, paper, felt and string.
You can usually make two hobbyhorses out of one pool noodle. To do this, you should first cut the pool noodle into two parts. Then push the broom handle into the hole of the pool noodle. If your pool noodles don't have a hole in the middle, you should make one yourself.
Now bend the pool noodle as shown and secure it in this shape with black adhesive tape. So you can make the horse's head and at the same time design a halter for your hobby horse.
The next step is to make the mane. First, you'll need the craft knife to make a slit in the back side of the pool noodle. Then fill the slot with glue and insert two pieces of felt. Cut the fabric lengthwise and make a mane out of it.
Finally, the eyes and snout can be made out of paper and glued to the horse's head. All you have to do is design the string as reins and the swimming noodle horse is ready. You can make as many hobbyhorses as you like and make beautiful toys for the children and their friends.
Creative variant with an oven mitt
If you want to make a really creative hobby horse, then you can try this idea with an oven mitt. It can be made from simple materials and completely without sewing, just using hot glue.
* Hobby horse made from sock byTutsplus
* Instructions for unicorn hobbyhorses fromAdventure in a Box
* DIY cardboard hobbyhorse fromMy cookies
* Instructions for swimming noodle horse byMollymooCrafts
