Planning my dear husband’s 30th birthday party (see this post & this post for context) has got me all preoccupied with all things rustic. In brainstorming ideas for his whiskey-themed party, I had an idea for a felt horse pencil topper and/or finger puppet. Here’s what I came up with!
Suppies
pencil
a sheet of horse-colored felt
thread
needle
really sharp scissors
freezer paper
iron
clipboard
Directions
Fold a sheet of freezer paper in half, waxed side in. Draw or trace a horse head shape onto one of the non-waxed sides of the freezer paper.
Using a clipboard, trace the design onto the other non-wax side of the freezer paper.
Loosely cut around the horse shapes. Iron the two shapes, waxed side down, to your felt. The horse head shapes should be mirror images.
Cut exactly along the horse head shape (right through the freezer paper and felt) using a really sharp scissors.
Next, cut a rectangle of felt approximately one centimeter wide and long enough to reach all the way around the horse head shape. Mine was about 8 inches long, which was too long. If it’s too long, you can trim the excess felt later like I did.
Thread your needle and tie a knot. Leaving the freezer paper on the horse head shape (to give the puppet some structure), begin sewing the rectangle to the horse head using a whip stitch.
As you work your way around the curves, try to keep the rectangle piece perpendicular to the horse head piece. This will lead to some temporary folds in the rectangle as shown below.
Once you’ve sewn around one side, trim any excess length from the rectangle.
Use a basting stitch to attach the second horse head shape (freezer paper and all) to the rectangle piece. This helps your horse head line up straight.
Whip stitch the horse head shape into place like you did on the other side. Then, remove the basting thread.
Using some of your felt scraps, cut out two evenly-sized diamond shapes. If you cut it out of freezer paper, remove the freezer paper before the next step.
Fold the diamond in half into a triangle and whip stitch it into place.
When you’re all the way around the long sides of the triangle, you can leave the sewing thread in place rather than knotting it and breaking it off. You’ll use it to attach it to the horse head.
I didn’t use any particular stitch to attach the ears, but you need to fold them in half as you sew them to get the right horse ear look in your puppet. This is what my first stitches looked like:
Check out my finished puppet. I plan on adding some batting to make it into a plushie pencil topper.
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