Creating My Puppets Skin: Fleece to Foam

SureShot

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I am new to puppet building and have watched many tutorials and read through forums. I'm trying to make human looking puppets. I'm not having an issue with the foam construction but have a question about the fleece. I've seen two common ways of constructing the fleece pattern for the puppets "skin" and would like to know which way brings more satisfying results. Which way is best?

First Way) Cover your head with a sheet and gather up excesses. Then draw on the sheet with a pen where the gatherings meet. This becomes your pattern. You cut the fleece from this pattern, place it on the head and begin to sew. Of course you could just sew and then put over the head but then you won't catch mistakes.

Second Way) Cut a piece of fleece that will cover the entire head. If it's an odd shaped head then several pieces might be needed. Then create your "skin" on the spot. I saw one man use spray adhesive to hold the fleece in place on the foam. Then pin, cut, pin and cut again, and then sew in place.

Second question: If I'm trying to avoid the center seam down the front of the face, I have to drape the fleece around the front and gather along the top and back. Does it make more sense to cut a line out for the mouth, or sew on a separate lower jaw?
 
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