need help with mouthplate

[ncchuck]

hi I am having trouble sewing the felt mouth to the outer head, my stitches show when i try a whip stitch what is the best way to attach the felt mouthplate to the head?

 

[Slackbot]

I don't know about the best way, but I've found a way that works for me. I glue the felt of the mouth onto the mouthplate, and then Henson stitch the skin onto that. It's the last part of the head I sew. It's a bit of a pain, but it works, and I like the result.

 

[ncchuck]

you sew though the felt glued onto the mouthplate ? im sorry i dont understand , do you leave a ring around unglued ? or sew thought the felt and what you used for the mouth plate? and the henson stitch thats the latter stitch right? or the baseball stitch sorry again I am totally new to sewing and my teaching comes from research and youtube videos.

 

[Slackbot]

I don't leave felt unglued around the mouthplate. I glue it all, and bend the mouthplate a little and stick the needle through that. Just the felt, not the mouthplate. Like I said, it's kind of a pain, but the result is nice.

As for the Henson Stitch, no, it's not the ladder stitch. It has a zigzag element to it. Dome with large stitches, it looks terrible, but with little stitches it's quite good. There's a demo on Youtube in which someone sews yellow fleece together with dark brown thread, and the thread just disappears.

(There is debate on just what the Henson Stitch is. Some say it's a ladder stitch. Some say it's the zigzag ladder I use. Some say there ain't no such stitch. I don't know what they used on the Muppets, but I know what works for me. Nyah.)

 

[ncchuck]

THANK YOU so much for taking the time to help.
was this the video

?
I am on my 3rd failed head not counting the baby head, I was following the instructions from the pp pattern because I am not even in your universe and couldnt make a pattern from scratch if my lif depended on it, but they said use a whip stitch and every time I turned the fabric outside in some of the tread showed, then I tried a back stitch which looked better but I got this zig zag pattern on the front side where the felt and fleece meet like a saw blade.

again thank you sorry to ask soooo many questions .

 

[Buck-Beaver]

There are old threads discussing this in depth here on the forum if you do some searching. The best method I have found is to machine sew the mouth to the rest of the puppet's head and then after it has been sewn in, glue the mouth to the rest of the mouth plate/palette. This will give you a much cleaner, more professional looking seam.

 

[ncchuck]

There are old threads discussing this in depth here on the forum if you do some searching. The best method I have found is to machine sew the mouth to the rest of the puppet's head and then after it has been sewn in, glue the mouth to the rest of the mouth plate/palette. This will give you a much cleaner, more professional looking seam.

I did search all I found was what to use for the mouthplate I think I understand thank you but I dont have a sewing machine yet ( or know how to use one) so right now its hand sew for me.