Woooie Hobby Horse/Unicorn

A few months ago, my almost 4yo daughter started “riding” random items around the house like a horse. Looks like this girl needed a hobby horse! A quick Google search found two hobby horse patterns: the Woooie from WhimsyWoo and the Wish for a Pony pattern from Just Bananas for Toys.

I asked my Facebook fans which one they preferred, and the Woooie was the overwhelming winner. With all the buzz, Emma from WhimsyWoo kindly sent me a copy of the Wooonicorn pattern for review.

I made my first Wooonicorn for my daughter’s fourth birthday (because if you’re going to have a hobby horse, it may as well be a unicorn!).

It took me a trip to three different fabric stores (with my daughter in tow) to find just the right fabric. She picked out the fabric, but I didn’t tell her what I was making. The pattern requires 1/2m of fabric for the head and about a fat quarter for each layer of the mane and scraps for the ears.

The pattern is an instant digital download on Etsy, and includes multiple pdf files with the pattern and instructions. There are optional extras you can purchase from WhimseyWoo, such as the horn pattern (to make it a Wooonicorn!), a mask and different eye embroidery files (the pattern includes a template for the eyes – which I used).

I would rate the pattern as for adventurous beginners or intermediate sewers. The pattern doesn’t include photos of every step, and there were a few times I had to study the photos to work out what to do, particularly for the reins. Thankfully, there’s a very active Facebook group of Woooie enthusiasts, including a number of people who sell gorgeous Woooies. It’s a great place to go for inspiration and help. There’s also a couple of YouTube videos linked in the pattern to help with the trickier parts.

The pattern includes lots of tips to make sure your hobby horse or unicorn can survive being handled by an enthusiastic child.

It took my one evening and one day to sew mine, and I loved how it turned out. I used a sparkly trim from Spotlight for the reins and some sparkly buttons to hold the reins in position – with sparkle on sparkle, it’s hard to see the buttons, but my daughter can’t get enough sparkliness!

When you’re sewing it, the eyes seam very close to the seam on the front of the head. It looks a little odd from the front of the horse, but the position looks great from the side.

One tip I learnt from the Facebook group is to knot together the mane’s fabric strips, two strips at a time. It makes the mane much fluffier. You can see my before and after knotting photos below:

The mane ended up a little weird at the bottom. I’m guessing I didn’t get my pattern pieces lined up just right. Something to keep an eye on next time!

Overall, I recommend the Woooie and Wooonicorn patterns by WhimsyWoo. There could be a few extra photos in the instructions, but there’s an excellent community to support you if you have problems.

I’ll definitely be making a few more – my daughter rode hers to my son’s school and the school has requested some for the Kindergarten area, and I’m itching to make some more. They are just too cute!

Don’t have time to make one yourself? There’s some gorgeous hobby horses made from this pattern to buy on Etsy, such as here, here and here.

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