Galahad

In December 2011, my daughter became fixated with the CBeebies programme Mike the Knight announcing, just before Christmas Eve, that she wanted her very own Galahad (Mike's horse).  It was too late by that point for "Santa" to find a nice one, so taking the advice of a friend we decided to make one ourselves.  My friend had recommended using an old sock and a broom handle but after checking out some blogs, I decided to use some off cuts of material and bits of wool.

To begin with I followed the advice on this blog and cut out the pieces I needed.  I used a purple gingham for the head and a pink spotted fabric for the inside of the ears. One of the most important stages was wrapping the top of the stick with a little stuffing and a little fabric to make sure the stick didn't end up poking out the top of the horse.  Sewing the blue hair took quite a long time, mainly because I didn't want it to fall out at the first tug

Probably the most difficult part was hiding the ends that met the stick.  I used a variety of wire, tape and ribbon to secure and hide the join but even though I wrapped it several times it always unraveled.  The blogs that I looked at for research suggested using a glue gun to secure everything and this is something at the top of my list to buy before I make some needed repairs.


One year on, Galahad is looking a little worse for wear - he has a small hole and one of his eyes is missing but for my first attempt at a hobby horse, he's not too bad.  He is a well loved toy and after a few repairs, I'm sure he'll be around for many years to come.

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