Funky Friends Factory has a plethora of stuffed animal pattern that are awesome. Not only are they pretty easy to put together (thanks to the clear instructions and pattern notations), the end results look super professional! I’ve now made three horses and a monkey, and love them all. The monkey went to my nephew / godson, who at the tender age of seven months loved it so hard that a seam popped. Luckily, it was in the presence of my mother, who was able to perform the quick, but necessary surgery to get him back in B’s hands.
This time, I was asked by a coworker to make another horse as a baby gift for a friend of hers. She loved the horse pictures, and all she asked was to change it up a tad – give the horse a white blaze down its face.
Because the pattern pieces provided are clearly marked, I was able to make that change with relative ease.
As always, cutting out the pattern pieces and the fabric is my least favorite thing to do.
Still, it wasn’t too bad. 🙂 Her instructions for the pattern pieces are to cut out the pieces then glue them to cardstock or something thicker, before cutting out the fabric. I sort of bypassed that part, and just used the paper pattern pieces on top of the fabric directly. It’s easier for me to pin the pieces to the fabric before cutting, and let’s be honest, it’s easier for the lazy part of me.
Next up is sewing the legs to the body gusset.
Not terribly difficult, even if it doesn’t really look like a horse yet.
Then it’s time to sew the neck/head gusset to the body gusset. Here’s where I made my modification.
On the pattern, there’s a notation for the bottom of the snout of the face/head. I made the decision that the blaze of the face would end at the snout. So, when I cut out the pieces, I used the neck gusset pattern piece, but cut it short of its full length, making sure that it extended at least 1/4″ past the snout base marking. Then, I cut a piece in the blaze fabric from the top of the gusset to at least 1/4″ past the snout marking. It’s hard to explain, but maybe the next picture will help?
Notice the white fabric on the left? That’s the top end of the neck gusset, and will end up going from between the ears all the way to the base of the snout. The seam from the white to the tan fabric is where the snout marking was, and the seam from tan to tan is where the neck gusset meets the body gusset.
It still doesn’t quite look like a horse, but don’t worry, that’s coming. Next were the ears.
Pretty easy construction here, pinning the two colors together (making sure that the two right sides are together), sewing around the outside edges, trimming the seams, then turning them. The instructions say to fold the ears in half, then tack them so that they keep their shape, but I’ve gone a step further here. I’ve kind of put in my own little dart, as I don’t really trust my tacking. My own personal guarantee that they’ll be the shape I want. So, the left picture is of the dart, the middle is the front of the ear, and the right is the back.
It is now time for the mane. I have to say, working with the fur is one of my least favorite parts of this particular pattern, but I think it’s probably because I”m just not that used to it, and it’s a little tricky, trying to make sure that the seam is straight and picks up enough of the fur backing to make it stay.
And there it is. Not perfect, but not terrible. You’ll notice that there’s no way this is the full mane.
I actually did better with the second part of the mane than the first, but you’ll see later that it’s not really something that causes much of a problem, and won’t be noticeable in the finished animal.
It’s time to attach the ears!
Not too shabby… Let’s see what happens when we put the head on the body!
Now it looks like we’re getting somewhere! It’s time to work with more fur, though, so let’s get the tail on this little one.
And now there’s a tail. The tail takes me a bit of time, because as clear as the rest of the instructions are, the tail always trips me up a bit. The instructions tell me to cut out a certain size of the fur, then roll the sides toward the center and tack down. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s my machine, but it’s not the easiest of things to take a 3/4″ wide piece of fabric, take it down to essentially 1/4″, then sew in any way that it catches both sides. Don’t get me wrong – I did better this time than the other three horses I’ve done, and I’ll take the final result, but there’s definite improvement that can be done here.
Next up was sewing the front leg sides together, which I have a picture for, but I’m not going to add it here – way too confusing, and honestly, pretty darn simple.
Putting the hoof pieces on is pretty simple here as well. I did something a little different (after getting agreement from MM, just to make sure I wasn’t crazy). I used the wrong side of the fleece for the hooves. I know, the right side would be fuzzier, but I kind of liked the “flat” side of the fleece for the hooves.
Thoughts?
Closing up the belly of the horse is pretty easy, as it’s all there for you. Make sure that you line up the edges, and let the overhangs of the back legs jut out a bit from the edges. It’s not going to hurt anything, promise.
See how in the middle there are those little notches of fabric? That’s what I’m talking about.
Now I attach the back leg hooves. Same deal as the front leg ones, and not too terribly difficult.
Then we get to sewing the neck gusset up to the top of the head. Copious amounts of pins are used in this case, to make sure that the gusset property aligns with the face pieces. There are lots of curves and notches to make sure are defined, so I don’t give myself too much of a hard time when I use a pin every couple millimeters.
As you can see, the white blaze worked out pretty well, though if I had to do it again, I would have ended the white portion right about where the mouth of the horse is, instead of down and around. Still, I think it looks really nice!
I went out of order a bit, as my friend asked if I could embroider one of the foot pads for the baby. That’s not a problem, but the foot pads should have been put in before putting the neck gusset. I did it after the neck gusset, and it didn’t hurt anything. Good to know for the future. Once the feet have been sewn on, the horse gets turned right side out.
I’ve also decided to go the route of safety eyes, which is a new method for me as well. These ended up being way easier than I expected – I did use a marker (highlighter, actually, because that’s what I found quickly) to make a small mark for where the first eye should go. Then, once I made a tiny, tiny snip in the fabric, pushed the eye in, and secured it with the washer. I repeated the process on the other side of the head, and they turned out pretty darn even!
And finally, stuff the stuffing in!
We all know how much I really, really dislike hand-stitching anything, but for stuffed animals, there’s really no choice in the matter. Luckily, ladder stitching is just about the easiest you can do, and because the hole is pretty darn small (in comparison to say, a hem on a pair of pants), it comes together pretty quickly.
(By the way, my apologies for the lack of pictures for these last few steps. I completed them when I had company, which, I know, is rude, though she understood, and didn’t want to pause to take pictures when i was on a roll.)
And there you have it – a Funky Friends Factory Horsey Horse.
Just in case you have a need for a unicorn for a friend’s kid, you should know that the pattern also comes with a pattern piece for a horn. Depending on the fabric you use (I used a sequined fabric that I don’t know I’ll ever use again), this is pretty darn easy as well.
Actually, I can’t say enough about Funky Friends Factory. I’ve only made two (three if you count the unicorn) of the patterns, but I haven’t been anything other than ecstatic by my beginner results. If you sew, and if you have a need for stuffed animals, please check out her website!