Puppet newbie looking for her first pattern!

[Lesley Jane]

Hi everyone,

My name is Lesley and I found this forum while I've been searching for a puppet pattern. Everyone here seems nice and friendly and helpful and I thought that it would be a good place to ask for some advice.

I've been making cloth dolls for quite some time, so I feel quite at home with needles and threads and sewing machines, but I've been wanting to try a puppet for a little while now and have decided its about time that I took the plunge! Project Puppet is the only place that I can find with patterns, but I'm a little confused at what to go for and wondered if anyone could help?

I think that I would quite like to try a monster, and so I thought I would go for the Mostro. However, I came across some online tutorials from a man making a monster from the Roly pattern. I wonder if anyone here had some experience of those patterns and could maybe recommend which one I should begin with? Is there one maybe a bit more versatile or comprehensive than the other? Or is there another pattern supplier out there, other than Project Puppet?

Ooh, also - would you know of anywhere online that I can purchase some funky fur for my monster? I live in the UK and I can't seem to find anything here

Any help at all that you could give me would be fantastic, and very much appreciated.

Thank you!

Lesley.

 

[TheCreatureWork]

Where you watching my videos? I have a tutorial on Youtube on the Roly puppet pattern found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XVKHh8ekKA
Anyway, the Roly Puppet Pattern is part of the Simple Series of puppets and are all very versatile. The Glorified Puppet Pattern being one of the easier patterns. I fully recommend Project Puppet Patterns.

 

[Lesley Jane]

Thank you so much for your reply.
Yes, its your videos that I've been watching - I found them on puppereersunite.com! Once I had watched a few, I thought that maybe making puppets wasn't as terrifying as I first thought, and that I could give it a shot. I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of your video series so I'll be keeping an eye out for them.

I have gone ahead and bought the Roly pattern (maybe I'll get the Mostro one later, once I've gotten past being a complete beginner), and am just collecting supplies now. I'm not sure if contact cement is called the same here in the UK, but I'm sure someone in a DIY shop will help me.

Thank you once again for your reply, and for such a great set of videos!

Lesley.

 

[pashmonster]

I have used almost all of the patterns from project puppet. Once you have made one puppet you can slightly change the pattern or add or take away bits of foam and glue them together. My Edward puppet was made using a roly pattern enlarged and a huge forehead added

I have had the same problem here in the Uk finding supplies, I use Evo-stick instant contact adhesive, you can buy it from B&Q, screw-fix.com or any large DIY place. I use a bit of foam to put it on then simply chuck away the scrap foam. Fur can be bough almost everywhere they sell material, Boyes usually stock simple colours or I use http://www.remnanthouse.co.uk/ the fur is higher quality than most stores. Boyes also sell a white foam for upholstering chairs this is very good put only comes in 1" sizes or i buy 1/2" blue upholstery foam from ebay