The other day I was flicking through stuff on Twitter and somebody had retweeted something to do with the Muppets. Naturally, that led me off on a ridiculous tangent which resulted in me coming across a pattern to make you're own Muppet-style puppet. And who doesn't love the Muppets? Since a child I've always loved the idea of making a puppet. My brother Will and I had a puppet theatre made for us one Christmas, creatively named HenWill Puppets, but I feel like we cheated, having never even made our own, not even out of socks. I thought, since I had the time, I would try it.
So basically, in this post I will show how I did it, along with photos too. It's actually relatively easy, there's just a lot of boring hand stitching. So, without further ado I'll pop on my Neil Buchanan style red sweatshirt and show you how I did it.
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Step One
First of all, I bought some foam which was a quarter of an inch thick and cost £1.75 for quite a lot. (I did have to walk for about forty five minutes there and back to find the shop, but the exercise did me good).
First of all, I bought some foam which was a quarter of an inch thick and cost £1.75 for quite a lot. (I did have to walk for about forty five minutes there and back to find the shop, but the exercise did me good).
I then drew round a pattern I found online, simply by searching something like 'puppet head template' on Google. I then simply cut out four of these to make the foam thicker, two one way and another two flipped over.
Step Two
After this, I glued them together with a hot glue gun (Barry bargain! £6.99 from Amazon) which is quite self explanatory and their are guides online that show you how to glue it. I've popped some photos below to show sort of how I did it.
After this, I glued them together with a hot glue gun (Barry bargain! £6.99 from Amazon) which is quite self explanatory and their are guides online that show you how to glue it. I've popped some photos below to show sort of how I did it.
Step Three
The next thing I did was make the mouth piece. I decided to use plastic because I feel like it's stronger and after we had a binge a few months ago, I had a Cadbury Heroes box left over. I started by measuring the foam mouth roughly, before drawing round it he best I could.
The next thing I did was make the mouth piece. I decided to use plastic because I feel like it's stronger and after we had a binge a few months ago, I had a Cadbury Heroes box left over. I started by measuring the foam mouth roughly, before drawing round it he best I could.
I cut these out, making sure I drew around these so I could use them as a template for the felt cover afterwards.
After that I carefully glued them into the mouth...
In order to fit the hand in carefully, I needed to fit a cover inside. I drew round each of the templates on to the foam, then drew an edge about an inch in to make room for the foam inside.
I cut two of these out for each to make the foam a bit thicker, and then glued it in. I burnt my hands approximately 86 times, but I fixed it in eventually:
In the same way I glued the foam, I made two ears and trimmed down the edges so they were smooth all round.
Step Four
With the same template as before I drew round them on to a pink felt fabric that was dirt cheap from the fabric store. I decided to leave a small amount of seam room round the edges of each, especially for the mouth. I also sketched a neck and drew similar shapes for the ears:
After I cut them out, I pinned them on the foam skeleton to see how they fit which worked well.
Step Five
I began to sew the pieces together in the same way I glued them. The stitch that I researched into is called the 'Jim Henson' stitch which has led to my boyfriend referring to me as his little Jim Henson. It's easy to find and do, just search Google/YouTube. You're not supposed to be able to see the seam really, but I guess that comes with practice, plus after I used the needle to pull out some trapped hair it was less visible.
I began to sew the pieces together in the same way I glued them. The stitch that I researched into is called the 'Jim Henson' stitch which has led to my boyfriend referring to me as his little Jim Henson. It's easy to find and do, just search Google/YouTube. You're not supposed to be able to see the seam really, but I guess that comes with practice, plus after I used the needle to pull out some trapped hair it was less visible.
Once the majority of sewing was done, I decided that I was going to make a nose out of layers of foam. It was easy to do and glue together, and can be seen in this high quality, extremely well lit photo:
I coated the fabric in felt and carefully stitched and cut in a way to look it most realistic. Here it is (along with the nose) pinned so I could see what it may look like:
Step Six
From this, I grabbed the templates from earlier and drew round them to make a felt piece that would make the inside of the mouth. The bizarre angle I'm holding it below is because I wanted to show off the Sharpie marks, but clearly I failed.
From this, I grabbed the templates from earlier and drew round them to make a felt piece that would make the inside of the mouth. The bizarre angle I'm holding it below is because I wanted to show off the Sharpie marks, but clearly I failed.
I then pinned this into the hole in the head skin, like so...
And began to stitch it in using a normal stitch. Once that was done (two hours later...) I pulled the fabric over the foam head and began to sew up the back using the same stitch as before.
Below is the head all stitched in, just minus the features.
Step Seven
Once the head was all stitched, I needed to sew on the features. I did this carefully and so that it didn't show through either side. I then made a tongue and throat hole using red and pink felt and glued them in.
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Right, so I'm going to leave it there for now because crazily my hot glue gun exploded whilst it was plugged in and in my hand, and I'm waiting for another one to be shipped, haha. Hopefully, next time I'll make the eyes and hair without losing a limb in the process. This was my first proper post, so I hope it was worth reading. Until next time...
