Sock Hobby Horse

I've had a couple of pairs of socks that I bought on sale that are super cute, but I can't actually wear because my calves are too big :-(.  So I decided to make a gift for my neice. 

It was super fun to make so I'm going to make more and list them on my etsy, but for now, you can make your own.

You need:
A Sock
Yarn
Stuffing
A little Felt
A dowel rod (I used a 7/8th 36" dowel from walmart)
Needle and thread


Put a little stuffing in the sock foot

Wrap the yarn around your fingers a bunch of times. I recommend using a bunch of different colors to make an interesting mane

Cut the yarn and make a little pile to work from

Thread your needle with one of the pieces of yarn and stitch it through the center of the heel and tie it in a knot.  Repeat going from the center of the heel to about 2 -3 inches from the top of the ankle.  Stitch as much yarn into the mane to make it as full as you like, and bring it as far forward as you like. I like to bring the mane a bit more forward of the ears because it gives the horse a cute, more pony like appearance.

Speaking of ears (sorry I forgot to take a picture of the process) cut a triangle of felt then gather the triangle a bit to make it curve.  Stitch the curved piece of felt to either side of the mane

Cut two ovals of white felt and two small circles of black felt.  Stitch them together, I used a pink thread to give the horse a pink eye color

Stitch the eye onto the horse straight infront of the ear.

To make the nostrils, take your thread up and back down through the toe of the sock like below.

Tie the thread like a shoelace

 and pull it tight

 and knot it and trim off the extra thread

To make the bridle take some of the yarn (about 5 arm lenghts of each color) and braid the length.

Wrap the braid around the nose of the horse

And tie the end of the braid to the opposite side of the nose loop creating the reignes

Cut 2 felt circles big enough to cover the knots

Decorate the circles however you wish, it is just to cover the knot holding the reigns.  Stitch the circle over the knot.

Lay the dowel rod out next to the horse with the top of the rod about equal with the ears and mark two dots about an inch apart about an inch above the bottom of the sock.  Using a drill with a fairly small bit, drill through your dots.

Insert the dowel into the horse

 Spread some glue around the dowel between the holes (not neccesary, but I like to make sure that the horse is really secure.  Thread your needles with some string or yarn.  Stitch through the holes and the sock.

 

Wrap the yarn around the bottom of the horse and knot it.

 

Spread a little glue over the string, again this isn't really necessary, I just want to make sure its secure before any kids play with it.

 

 Once the glue dries your new horse is ready to play with!

 

... Too bad my baby bear isn't quite old enough to play with it, though it didn't stop him from tasting it (its delicious by the way)

TA DA!

Isn't that Sew Cool!