Make it: Unicorn Hobbyhorse with free PDF download

This month of DIY gifts is so exciting for us because we get to share so many things to make for your family and friends. Today I'm going to show you how to make any of the little princesses in your lives squeal with joy. We are making a Unicorn Hobby Horse!  We have included a PDF download for this too so you can print it off and keep it handy for birthdays as well as Christmas time.

You will need: 1/2 metre of white fleece, 3 x 15cm by 75cm strips of coloured fleece, ribbon, toy stuffing, thread (normal and extra strong), a pole or stick, scraps of felt or fleece in black and a pretty colour, pins, scissors and a sewing machine (optional) glue (optional).

Start by drawing out your pattern or use the one we have provided and scale it up to size. Place the unicorn head piece on top of two layers of fleece and cut around the template leaving a 1.5cm seam allowance all the way around. Do the same for the ears and horn, making sure you cut two extra ear pieces from a pretty colour of felt to make the inside of the ears. Stitch all the way around your head shape leaving the bottom open and snip into the seam allowance at all the curves. Next, fold over the horn, pin down the straight edge and stitch it down to make a cone. Also stitch the ears leaving the flat edge at the bottom open, then turn everything right side out.

Next, take a square scrap of fleece and a handful of stuffing and make a ball on the end of your stick by wrapping some thread around the base, I have used an old fabric pole, ask at your local fabric shop if they have any spares you can have, or head to a DIY store and pick up some dowelling. Start to stuff your unicorn head until you reach the bend at the top of the head then insert your pole. Continue to stuff down the neck until you are about 7-9 cm from the base of the neck. Take some strong thread and stitch around the neck pulling it in tight at the base, wrap some pretty ribbon around to cover the stitching and to help keep it in place on your pole.

Next you are going to make the mane. Layer up your three colours of fleece strips and pin them together along the centre. Stitch all the way down the centre of the strips. Take your super sharp scissors and start to snip the strips all the way along both sides leaving 1.5 cm between the end of your cut and the centre line of stitching. You should end up with a lovely fleecy hair do for your unicorn.

Stitch the mane to the base of the neck and tack it in place along the neck seam until you get to the forehead of your unicorn, then fold it back on itself and carry on tacking it on until you reach the end of your mane piece.

It should look a little bit like a horse now, so it is time to make the horn. Take the cone you stitched earlier and stuff it. Stitch up the bottom of the cone with some strong thread and without cutting the thread take it and wrap it up and around the cone, pulling it tightly to create the spiral up the horn. Finish off by stitching through the tip of the horn and tying off your thread.

Fold the ears in half and taking your strong thread again, stitch them to the head either side of the mane, then stitch around the base of the horn. Lastly take a scrap of black felt and cut yourself some cute eyelashes and stitch or glue them onto the unicorn's face.

Here is a picture of the template I drew, you can easily download this picture (right click on your mouse and choose save as or download our PDF) scale it up and use it for your own template.

I am in love with this girl, I am going to be hard pushed to let her go, but the little girl who is getting her for Christmas is going to just love her even more than me I'm sure!

We would love to see what gifts you are making for your loved ones this year, link in the comments or #livelovemake on Instagram or twitter to show us your goodies. 

Sammy xxx

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Michelle Makes: Honeycomb

Everyone is already talking about Christmas, so I thought I would share with you a super fun and easy treat that you can adapt for the children or the grown-ups in your life, for sharing over the holidays or packaging up and giving as gifts.

This really is such a fun easy treat to make that you might never buy another Crunchie in your life!

The ingredients are simple, all you need is caster sugar, golden syrup and bicarbonate of soda.

You could also do with a sugar thermometer for this one, but it’s not essential.

So start by weighing out 100g of caster sugar in your pan and add 4 tablespoons of golden syrup.  My that stuffs sticky!!

Mix it together to form a paste.

Then on a very low heat, bring the mixture to the boil slowly.

Let it bubble away gently like this for about 3–4 minutes until the mixture reaches the soft boil stage (112-115c on a sugar thermometer) or drop a tiny amount in a bowl of cold water, (if you can squish it flat, then it’s ready).

At this stage add 1.5 tsp of bicarbonate of soda to the mixture, take it off the heat and give it a couple of stirs. It will froth up pretty quickly so don’t get scared!

I am glad that I got this in shot because it was a pretty quick frothing moment!

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and leave it to set for a couple of hours.

At this stage I wanted to make my honeycomb for the children a bit more fun and playful so I added some marshmallows and jelly tots to it straight away so that they set in the mixture and poured a little chocolate over it.

When the mixture has hardened, you can just break it up into pieces with your hands.

This is where I decorated my pieces for the grown-ups! I did some covered in a drizzle of chocolate like this:

Quite pretty.

And for the ones below, I wanted a nice sophisticated look, so I dipped the thin pieces in chocolate and playing with the gold packaging of a Crunchie, I added a few little edible gold balls for a nice ‘posh afternoon tea’ effect.

What do you think ?

You can add anything you like at this stage – be creative! I tried some edible glitter on a few of mine.

So if you have any left, (I had eaten about 5 by now) then why not package them up in clear cellophane bag, add some Christmas ribbon and voila, some lovely Christmas Handmade Honeycomb !

I really hope you enjoyed this post and do give it a go, it’s a lot easier than you think and really quite addictive to make and even more so to eat!

Thank you so much for reading xxx