Transitioning From Polar to Antron Fleece

[Melonpool]

So, I made the biggest leap of my puppet-making career and decided to make the next batch of comics out of Antron Fleece. I imagine that along with learning to dye the material, I'll have to switch from machine sewing to hand sewing just about all of it.

Is there anything else I should look out for? If I do end up mostly hand sewing, will I no longer have to worry about the half-inch seam allowances that were a necessity in machine sewing?

Steve

 

[renegade]

steve
I've been machine sewing my antron fleece and I do use the 1/2 seam allowance .
Your in for a great ride with this stuff! I just dyed my first batch 2 weeks ago and it came out great ! I love the fabric.

when machine sewing it just takes along time to pick the seams to pull out the fiber to hide the seams

make sure you check out project puppets web blog on using Antron

good luck and have fun!!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

You don't need to leave a 1/2 seam allowance when working with antron fleece and sewing by hand. Some people do leave a very tiny seam allowance when hand stitching, but I don't. Personally, I think hand sewing produces much, much better results than machine sewing. Hand sewing takes longer and is much more time-intensive, but the seams are easier to pick and it just looks better in my experience.

A good idea might to do a test trying both (hand sewing and machine sewing) and see which looks and works better for you.

 

[Melonpool]

My thought was to machine sew some of it (along the scalp and behind the eyes) and hand sew other, more exposed areas (jaw, nose, fingers). That way I can take advantage of both the time-saving aspects of machine sewing as well as the cleaner look of hand sewing.

One nice thing about the puppets I'm building now is that I work from patterns and have already built prototypes, so I more-or-less know where I need to machine or hand sew.

Thanks for the tips. I'll check the blog!

Steve

 

[puppetsmith]

Hey Melonpool. Sometimes I do both, if i'm in a time crunch. If you plan on covering a certain portion of the character with features or hair or whatever - use the machine. For example, Melonpool (as seen in your avatar), because of his physical characteristics would really not be showing many seams at all. I would probably machine sew everything on him except his lower jaw. Hand stitch that and you're good to go. You just have to adjust the pattern depending on the places you want to sew by hand or machine stitch.

Approaching each character individually like this can be a real time saver.

 

[puppetsmith]

Ha! I was typing and you were busy being a genius!