Round Nose Pattern

[D'Snowth]

Could somebody possibly show me an example of what a pattern would look like for the fabrication of a round nose (like Ernie or Grover or characters like that)? I actually tried following the instructions from an old McCall's SST hand puppet pattern, which basically had a pattern for a large round-shaped piece of fabric (larger than the nose itself for seam allowance), a stitching around the outer edge of it, place the stuffing inside, then pull the seam tightly to cinch the stuffing into place, and that's supposedly the nose, but when I try it, the results just basically look like a crumbled up wad of fabric instead of a nice, round nose.

So yeah, all I'm asking for is if someone could show me a better fabric pattern for a round nose, I'd appreciate it much.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Hmm...I wonder if you're using enough stuffing?

When I've had to make noses like that I've taken a soft foam ball (like NERF ball) cut a wedge out of it and glued it together to reshape it, then draped fabric over it and sewn it up at the back. I don't use a pattern for the fabric, I just drape it and make any necessary cuts by eye (it takes a bit of practice to get good at it).

 

[D'Snowth]

That method, yes, I usually do that when fabricating the puppet's foam structure, but I don't really have anything like that to use for the nose, just stuffing; and I've tried adding and taking away stuffing, but the results are pretty much the same, I'm afraid.

 

[Slackbot]

Does the fabric you're using have any stretch? If it doesn't, that would explain why it's wrinkling.

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, it's felt... it's kind of give or take.

But I kind of remedies the situation myself... I observed the details of some of my SST and Muppet plushies, and saw some of the rounder noses have four seams in them (except for Bert, he only had one at the bottom), so I cut four darts into the round piece of felt (making it look almost like a four-leafed clover), and am sewing the darts closed, so I'll see how that does.

 

[Slackbot]

That was going to be my next suggestion. I do something similar for round shapes like eyelids, tweaking the approach to keep the seams as unobtrusive as possible.

 

[D'Snowth]

Heh, fortunately or unfortunately, my puppets all have cardboard eyes, so whenever I need to add on eyelids and such for certain scenes, I basically cut pieces of fleece about half and inch bigger than the eyes themselves, then pin them on by pinning the excess fabric behind the eyes themselves as best I can.

I AM going to experiment with new eyes, however: I'm going to cut down the round, plastic caps on those laundry bead containers to size, paint them, and see how they do.

 

[Slackbot]

Plastic spoons can make good, inexpensive eyes too.

 

[D'Snowth]

For smaller puppets, yes, like Ella the Elf, her eyes are plastic spoons, but most of my puppets are larger, and so plastic spoon eyes look somewhat disproportionately small on them.

Someone on here was talking a while back, it may have been Steve (Melonpool, not D'Monster), saying that he gets eyes by cutting them out of those globes they top lampposts with.

EDIT: Oh, and the darts in the fabric worked well, the nose turned out much better... not 100% perfect, but definitely much better looking and sufficient.