For those that do not know, I bought these (large!) plastic horses for $1.00 each at a yard sale October 16th. I figured I'd clean them up, crochet horse blankets for them & gift them for Christmas to my great-nieces, ages 3 & 5. Having had horses, I know what horse blankets look like so that made coming up with the blankets a bit easier - no pattern, so it was a lot of measuring & trial/error.
The blankets are done in "waistcoat" stitch which makes a dense, durable 'fabric'. The horses are slick, so the blankets needed a "belt" ... little hands have trouble with closures, but their mom said they were ok with buttons so there is only 1 button to undo & the belt comes off. The chest buckles work, but are so tiny they're unworkable for little hands so the blankets come off over the horses' heads.
Cleanup was a tough job - took lots of hours & much scrubbing. Crayon, blue paint, some brown lacquer type stains, white paint .... tried some milder cleaners, but had to resort to Greased Lightning cleaner & a Magic Eraser plus lots of elbow grease. Manes/tails were washed in baby shampoo & blown out with a hair dryer.
Here are some pics - the white horse (left) I call 'Arab' because the head & neck remind me of an Arabian. The horse on the right has "Palomino" stamped on the inside of one leg, so I call that one "Pal".
The Arab & Pal after their 'baths' & shampoo/blow drys ... looking pretty spiffy!
Sporting their new crochet blankets ... Arab in Lavender & Pal in Purple. The girls say purple is their favorite color with pink a close second.
Button details - the one on the left is a working button, the one on the right for decoration. Love the little buckles - they do a good job holding the blanket fronts together across the chest. I did buttons/buckles in pink on both blankets since both girls like purple/pink.
If you really are interested in seeing just how dirty these horses were & how they cleaned up, you can check out the following links. They were both "well loved" and filthy. Manes/tails almost felt a little 'sticky' (yuck!). Pal is the most beat up - lots of scratches, but after getting off the white paint & other stuff, he's more than presentable. I'm really pleased with the way both of them turned out. As a side note, I found a Pal on eBay ... description was "used & dirty" & the tack it came with was broken ... priced at $69 ... I think I got a deal for my $1.00!
