We love staying warm the old fashioned way - snuggling up to a hottie on chilly nights. When I designed the Animal Hot Water Bottle Covers my children went crazy for them! The original pattern features a raccoon, fox, bear, kitty, panda, owl and fawn but no horse!
Verinne from Boeven Bende created this delightful horse for one of her children and we loved it so much, we kindly asked her to put together a tutorial.
Supplies
Knitting yarn for manes - thick and fluffy yarn works best.
Supplies as described in your original Animal Hottie Cover pattern.
Horse pattern pieces
Cut Horse Pattern Pieces
Download the horse add-on pattern pieces here - you will need to own the original Animal Hottie Cover in order to use this add-on.
Head - Cut 1
Ears - Cut 2 as a mirrored pair from main fabric
Ears - Cut 2 as a mirrored pair from contrast fabric
Eyes - Cut 2 as a mirrored pair
Nostrils - Cut 2 as a mirrored pair
Blaze - Cut 1
Cut nostrils, eyes and blaze from fusible appliqué paper following the general instructions from your original Animal Hottie Cover pattern.
Once you have cut out the horse face, lay it onto your original front hottie paper pattern piece, aligning the top of the head with the top of the front.
Adjust the area where the nose is so it follows the line of the head piece, then add a 3/8" (1cm) seam allowance around the nose area.
Cut out this adjusted front, and then adjust and cut the back bottom piece in the same fashion.
Horse Face
Peel off the backing paper from nostrils, eyes and blaze and carefully position them onto the face, using the paper template. Fuse the pieces onto your fabric and stitch around all edges. If using a heavily fraying fabric you may wish to stitch around the edges with a zigzag stitch.
Position the face onto the hottie front and stitch around the edges.
Ears
If using a stiff non fraying fabric like wool felt, stitch main and contrast fabric together with the wrong sides together. In this case, make sure these pattern pieces were cut without the included seam allowance!
If you use thin and/or fraying fabric, place inner and outer ears on top of each other with the right sides together.
Stitch the side edges leaving the bottom edge open. Clip the corners, turn and press. Topstitch close to the edge.
Then fold your ear in half and press at the bottom to create a little fold. Use this fold as a marking to fold both sides towards the middle. Set your sewing machine to a longer stitch and baste the ear at the bottom.
Place your ears on the horse head matching the sides of the head. Make sure the left and right ear are in the right place!
Turn the ears downwards and baste them onto the head.
Manes
Determine how long you want your mane to be, and fold your yarn up and down along that length until you like the thickness of it. Carefully bast the mane in the center between the ears.
Continue and finish your hottie following the general instructions from your original Animal Hottie Cover pattern.
There you have it - a gorgeous horse hottie cover - perfect for any little equestrian lover.
Join us in the Twig + Tale Facebook group to ask questions, look for inspiration, and of course to share photos of your lovely projects.
This tutorial was created for you with love by boevenbende. Boevenbende is all about the sewing adventures of a mum and her three rascals putting all garments to the test on the Dutch countryside. You can visit us at: boevenbende.blogspot.nl
