Elmo 1.0

[downunderbatman]

Hi all,

I started work on my Elmo for my nearly 2 year old son last Sunday. I used the Monster style puppet pattern from Project puppet which gives enough of a likeness for my purposes. Even with just the head completed my little boy already recognised his favorite furry little monster.

My wife wanted the fur to remain soft and cuddly so I opted to not treat/boil the fur at all. It still needs some trimming, but I'm really happy with the way it's turning out. I've finished the head and body sections. Just need to add the sleeve, then make the arms and legs.

I'm also going to make this without arm rods as my boy loves to play with the puppets himself, so I thought it a little too dangerous to leave the rods in place. All gluing was done with hot glue to keep it more child safe. I purchased my first sewing machine to tackle this project, and it's made things so much easier. I followed the project puppet suggestions of trimming the seams etc and it worked really well.

The eyes were pre-existing eyes. I went this route because it was easier, and more durable for a child toy. This means they are quite a bit smaller than they otherwise would have been, but I think he still keeps much of the look of the character for those who aren't too stuck on the little details. Certainly all of my friends recognise who it is immediately, so that's good enough for me.

I will have enough fur left over to make a 2nd, so I may revisit this later down the track, and do a version with arm rods, and larger eyes, and boil the fur to get a more accurate look, but for now this is kind of my generic take on Elmo.

Enjoy, All feedback welcome, as I want to keep improving with my skill each puppet I make.

regards,

Greg

 

[Bliffenstimmers]

Looks like the eyes could be bigger. Otherwise it looks great so far!

 

[kumakami]

it looks good so far....and since your kid loves it you have succeeded already!

 

[downunderbatman]

Hi all,

finally finished Elmo. finally gave him arms and legs. I haven't added any arm rods, as I mentioned above due to it being used by my almost 2 year old boy and I think arm rods would be too dangerous for him. I might make some removeable rods that just use rubber bands to attach, but we'll see. He's not 100% accurate, but I'm happy with the results, given some of the sacrifices I made to make him more robust for child play. His eyes as mentioned are store bought, so much smaller than what I would have normally made them from. I decided not to treat the fur, instead just cut to length and roughed it up with my hands to get a matter look, but I'm pretty happy with the final result given the steps I've decided not to do on this build.

I also decided to leave his feet without toes. I decided you don't often see Elmo's toes with the fur anyway, so I decided as the rest of him wasn't 100% accurate it didn't matter too much that his feet were without toes. The arms are a little bigger than Elmos in thickness, something I'd fix if I built another. There are quite a few alterations I'd make to the patter if I were to do this again. For starters, I'd make the black felt mouth bigger, and make some leg and arm alterations, and add toes and arm rods, and larger eyes made from scratch.

Not sure at this stage whether I'll bother to go back and make another, but we'll see. I'd still like to make another kermit as my first was pulled apart to make the second which I gave to a friends son, so I'd like to build one for myself before making any more elmos.

My son absolutely loves him which really is the whole point to making Elmo. And he has a puppet that he can safely play with on his own.

anyway, onto the pics.

enjoy,

Greg