What are Kermit's build specs?

[ravagefrackle]

you will also have to take in to acount that the Current ANTRON fleece takes up to 25% more dye , because the fibers are finer and their are much more of them , and NEVER , NEVER day antron in a washing machine, it makes it pilly, you have much less, control,you really should read through the BLOG that Buck just meantioned, and the Tutorial on Sean Johnson;s BLOG

http://swazzle.com/blogs/2005/12/bark-production-journal-dying-fabric.html

keep in mind you have tons of info out Their to help you, take advatge of it, do not rely soley on MuppetCentral

 

[Boba Lynn]

Thanks for the tips!! I did not see those, I have done tons of searchs on this forum and I didn't see either of those sites mentioned and I didn't see it on the Project puppet site.

Here is my color now, and my test stripes I did just minutes before I put the whole fabric in.

I'll go back and get more dye and try to recolor it in a tub this time.

The pill dosn't bother me as Kermit is pilled and that is his look. I havn't seen one Kermit replica here that is pilled, including MR's. No offence to anyones Kermits, but IMHO they just don't look right if they are not pilled to some degree.

Lynn

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Ravagefrackle makes a really good point about not relying soley on forums like this. At a certain point you just have to do it (build the puppet, dye the fleece, etc.) and realize that mistakes will happen. The advice I heard from someone along time ago about how to be a good puppet builder was "go build 100 puppets and then come back and talk to me".

I'm making three copies of a puppet at the moment and after a week of work yesterday I realized the shape of the head is slightly off so today I have to throw out a week's worth of work and start over. It sucks, but I think it's just part of the process sometimes.

 

[Boba Lynn]

OK... Success!!!

I'm back on track now, I redyed following the Blogs guide and I came out to the color I wanted. Thanks guys, Whew!!!

Now to some down and dirty work....

Now my 3 proto heads I have been using the FP pattern and Alpine fleece and I have been sewing it with a machine on using the space in between the green color as my seam and dotted line as my seam allowence.

I'm modding the pattern a little bit to try and see if I can get it more accurate. I redid the mouth a little so it curves on the sides and is not as wide. I'm going to try and mod the head itself a little bit as well.

Now that I have been looking at the blogs stiching tips for Antron I want to hand sew it using either of the two stitchs recommended.

1) If I'm reading the instructions correctly it looks like both stitchs seem to mean there is either almost no or very minimal seam allowence (when compared to doing it by a machine) and their edges are butted up to each other especially with the Baseball stitch, is this correct??

2) When I trimmed my pattern I allowed for seam allowance, do I not allow for seam allowance on the Baseball stitch? as the edges seem to but up with each other.

3) Do I allow for a little seam allowance on the whip stitch???

4) How strong are these stitchs for durablity? I know I turned my puppets heads inside out a few time tweeking them or adding mouth insterts ETC. and I know it puts a lot of stress on hte seams when doing this. How will it hold up?

Thanks guys,
Lynn

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I don't have much seam allowance, but I try to pattern the material so that the fabric's stretch will give me a little allowance if I need it.

The durability of the stitches depends entirely on how well you sew.

 

[ravagefrackle]

the stiches will be pretty strong as long as you are careful, and dont make them to big or to far apart,

hand stiching is almost always going to give you a better finish , especally on a head, areas were you will really see the seam s,

s i recal, Kermit is pretty much all hand sewn,

you may want to do a mock in your bad fleece piece to see what sort of changes to the pattern you will need to make, (i normally use 1/4'' seem allowance for machine sewing , not sure what you are using)

 

[Boba Lynn]

Here is my latest and hopefully final Kermit head. This has been done with the Antron fleece and a highly modifyed FP Kermit pattern.

The Antron fleece has been a dream to work with, the seams came out pretty good using a pin, dog brush, and my wifes clothes defuzzer.

Thanks for the tips guys, LMK what you think.
Lynn

 

[JoeyMuppet]

Looks real good so far.Keep up the good work.

 

[Kevin the Frog]

It looks really good! Make me one, too!

 

[aaronmojo]

Man, he looks so friendly... I've got to get some of that Antron fleece!