Easy wool felt toy horse tutorial with free pattern
Creating your own toys for a child is a simple and highly rewarding activity.
You just need to have some basic sewing experience to create a beautiful toy for a child that they will treasure forever.
These instructions are easy to follow, even for beginners.
Once you know how to make one, you will find it much easier to make almost any kind of felt toy.
And today I will show you how to make a delightful felt horse farm animal toy.
Why Felt toys?
Simple handmade toys, whether felt or wooden toys, are perfect for little hands to play with. They are simple and made of natural materials, which help a child promote their imagination, fine motor skills, and cognitive abilities, allowing them to enter an imaginative playland and create adventures.
Which felt?
This felt horse toy pattern is the right size to fit an A4 Felt sheet.
Any felt will work, but I recommend pure wool felt because the feeling is much nicer than acrylic felt, the quality is much better, and the toy will last much longer.
You can get pure wool felt at worldofwool
or Myriadonline, which sells Waldorf-inspired products (toys, books, craft and art supplies)
Stuffing wool, I use this one, from world of wool
Free Pattern
Get your free pattern to make a felt horse toy.
Bring warmth to a child with this beautiful handmade felt horse toy 💖
Don’t rush it; try to enjoy the process by sewing slowly.
The stitches we will be using are:
For most of the body and ears:
Blanket stitch: For sewing one piece of felt to the other.
- Tie a knot to a double thread and pull the needle up through the felt.
- Push the needle back through next to the stitch and up below it, making sure the loose end is caught.
- Push the needle down and up again so it is the same size as the previous stitch, catching the loose thread again.
Running stitch: For the tail and the Maine.
Go in with the needle through the two pieces of felt and come out the other side. Then go in through the felt from the same side you just came out from
What you need:
- Horse pattern
- Felt A4 size in a colour of your choice.
- A piece of lighter colour for under the legs and inside the ears.
- wool for the hair.
- Thread (same colour as the felt)
- Pins and needles
- Scissors
- Stuffing wool
- Crochet needle (for filling the horse)
How to make your horse:
Print the horse pattern, and cut the pattern pieces.
Using pins, pin it to the A4 felt folded in half to get the two sides of the horse’s body.
You can mark the pattern with a pen or just cut around it.
Do the same with the ears.
Take away the paper pattern and pin the two sides of the horse’s body together.
Cut the paper body pattern on the lines to make the underside of the horse.
Pin the underside paper pattern to a folded lighter colour piece of felt and cut.
Cut two more ears with the lighter colour felt for the inside of the ears.
Pin carefully the underside piece of the horse’s body, make sure the legs are aligned, and pin them together.
With a blanket stitch, start sewing from the back of the horse just where the underside meets the main body, as shown in the picture.
Try and do even 3 mm stitches.
Sew the four legs and continue until you get to the top of the head.
The Tail:
Now, cut a number of pieces of about 6″ (15cm) long of the wool to make the tail. Tie a knot to keep the pieces together.
Insert the knot side of the wool into the body and sew using a running stitch until you reach the end of the tail. Then, continue with the blanket stitch for 1 cm, leaving enough space to stuff the horse with stuffing wool.
.
The maine:
Cut 5 or 6 knotted pieces to make the main, and sew one by one the same way you did the tail, with the running stitch, until you finish with the main.
Stuffing:
Make a small ball of wool and with the help of a crochet needle or the back of a pencil, push gently the wool to the bottom of the legs until the legs feel ‘firm’
Continue stuffing the body and head, adding wool as necessary until you are done. Close the back of the horse with the blanket stitch.
The ears:
Now sew the horse’s ear pieces of felt together, and sew a few stiches to shape the ears. Then sew them to the horse’s head, making sure they are even.
You can sew them at the same time, inserting the needle in one ear and coming out on the other side, and sewing the other ear and repeat 6 times or until they feel well attached.
And there it is. ❤️
