My w.i.p. Fraggle puppet

[ncchuck]

ok this is my first attempt at puppet making or than sewing two things together(like my pig puppet), any suggestions on how to make it better would be greatly appreciated.
the first is a small baby fraggle I havent gotten the arms,legs or tail yet but something looks off
it is around 5 inches tall .





i used cheap fleece , it has a foam skull mouth plate just like a full sized puppet ,i sewed feathers on the head for hair but it still looks a lil off somehow any help would be appreciated

 

[ncchuck]

my full sized fraggles arms, I used a short fur to hid my sewing I henson stitched them together they have foam tubs inside and doll joints to attach to body( when I get it built

 

[ncchuck]

taking the great fraggle builder herself slackbot's advice doing then redoing everything twice still need to make 1 or 2 more , I need to find some wire for the fingers then work on removable armrods

 

[ncchuck]

my first set of failed eyes with eyelids, i used the fur and felt but I have since completely redid them i just glued the fabric on the back and cut it the sewed it shut they dont look to good so for the next set i tried making a pattern and sewing little half circles then glueing them on the eyes

 

[ncchuck]

my second set of eyes with the lil half circles i sewed they look better.

 

[ncchuck]

working on the head, the feathers i had ordered the guy cancelled them so i have to find some ostrich feathers still.

 

[Slackbot]

I see you've taken my advice to heart: experiment, be willing to try stuff and make mistakes, then try again. It does get easier with practice, I promise!

You Henson stitched fake fur? I wouldn't think you'd need to use the stitch there, as its purpose is to conceal the thread and make the seam easy to hide when you pick the fibers out of it. It works with Antron fleece because of its fuzziness. But then, if it works for you with fur, or if it's just more comfortable for you, then go for it. Whatever works!

I like the shot of the face looking at you. Very cute. I look forward to seeing updates on this puppet.

 

[ncchuck]

wow thank you so much , and yes i did listen to you, i did latter stitched the fake fur but after you said you used a different stitch i started the zig zag baseball stitch just to get more practice this is all new to me up till now my only sewing was to repair small tears in my cloths,
i made 3 and a half skulls before getting the half skull i am using, mine is a LOT smaller than yours i am using the pp sock pattern and my hand barely fits in it.
the eyes came from a small elmo purse.

 

[Slackbot]

Heh, I recognized the PP sock puppet head and the arms. When my friend Kathy made a puppet of my character Poncle she used those patterns too.

Three and a half skulls? That's par for me too. It seems that for every puppet I make, I do three draft skulls in cheap foam before getting the shape I want. I have a lot of green puppet skulls lying around.

For me, what's heartbreaking is making hands and then finding out they don't work with the puppet. Y'see, I came up with my own hand pattern, and I think it looks much better than the simple front-and-back approach, but it's bloody labor intensive. I spent hours on those hands, and when I went to attach them to Skeeter I saw they were much too big. Since I didn't want her to have giant man hands I sighed, put those hands on a shelf, photocopied my pattern pieces at 80%, and started over.

I found a blog with a diagram showing the Henson Stitch. However, don't believe it when it says that the stitch alone with make the seam disappear. Seam-picking is necessary too.

 

[ncchuck]

I needed a pattern that had the words 'simple' or 'for dummies' , and the pp where the only one i could find,I am nowhere good as you so i will have to stick to the paddle hands for now. i am hoping to make 3 fraggles rash i am working on now. I got some cheap antron for the other two but i am still having trouble with a few things and need to get my feather hair down so its taking me a long time to do the simple i wouldnt dream of taking on your patterns.
and please dont think i am trying to rip off your design the purple fur was all i could find at the store and i wanted to try it before going into ordering online.