Sewing Kermits Mouth Help

[Criss]

Whats the best way to sew kermits mouth to the felt

what stitch should the head be turned insideout and handsewn ?

And what method and material is everyone using to make the mouth plate , all input would be a huge help

 

[Slackbot]

I use 1/8" thick gasket rubber for flexible mouthplates. You can get it from Lowe's. For rigid mouthplates (like Scooter's) I buy a large plastic storage tub from Target and cut the plates out of that.

I pin the "skin" onto the head and sew it right on top of the skull using the baseball stitch, then gently pick and brush the seams to hide them. I sew the fleece "lip" to the felt covering the mouthplate as it is rather than turning it inside out. Some people think that's a weird way to do it, but it works for me.

 

[Criss]

So you are not sewing with the mouth turned inside out

Do you glue the red felt to the rubber then pin that to the head/mouth area then sew with the head .

Also are you rolling the green mouth fabric over a little onto the red felt . I tried to sewn the mouth inside out and it looked horrid . There was no green lip inside the mouth slightly .

Sorry for the silly questions

 

[Slackbot]

The felt I use has adhesive backing. I stick that on, glue the mouthplate to the puppet skull, sew the skin together around the skull, and then sew the lip to the mouthplate using the Henson Stitch.

Just before I sewed Gobo's lip to his mouthplate.

The Henson Stitch:

 

[Muppetlab]

I love the finished look of your mouth work Slackbot.. Doesnt that make your needles all sticky sewing into the adhesive felt?

 

[Slackbot]

Thanks. And, actually, the needles do get a little sticky when I sew adhesive backed felt. not enough to affect the process, but enough to feel weird. I just wipe 'em with scrap fabric afterward.

 

[Criss]

Do you use the Henson stitch on the mouth plate when sewing to the outside of the mouth . When I tred to stitch the lips/head to the mouth plate with the head as it would be once finished the needle would end up in the face . Should I be going right thru the top lip thru the mouth plate and out the bottom of the lip ?

I've ended up glueing the green Kermit mouth/lips to the top of the red felt that I had pre glued to the mouth plate . Looks ok as it was only a test for the pattern .

I'm still at a total loss of how to do this sewing correctly . ive made the glofied sock puppet before but the sewing is with the head turned inside out and no mouth plate installed .

 

[Slackbot]

I don't sew all the way through the mouth plate, only through the felt.

 

[Criss]

Silly me , I was trying to push the needle thru the plate itself .

So your sewing the felt to the lips before its attached to the mouth plate or glueing the felt to the plate and just slightly catching the felt when sewing the lips ( sewing at a shallow angle ) . Are you using the Henson stitch on the lips ?

The process I've been doing is sewn the head halves , glue the felt to the mouth plate then I was trying to work out how to sew the lips to the plate with felt already attached

Thanx so much for your kind help answering my many questions .

 

[Slackbot]

The felt I use has adhesive backing. I stick that on, glue the mouthplate to the puppet skull, sew the skin together around the skull, and then sew the lip to the mouthplate using the Henson Stitch.