This past winter, I decided to make my daughter a silly puppet. I had made my first fabric puppets using the Tuscon Puppet lady’s patterns a couple of years ago, so I had a general idea of how to do the mouth and was excited to try my own pattern. The result was a silly bird that we named Dody. My daughter seemed to enjoy talking to Dody and watching the her various hijinks. The puppet became like a member of the family. Although my daughter has also taken to other dolls and soft toys, the moving parts of a puppet and the tendency for the holder to want to animate them more, seems to create more of an impression than a regular soft toy.

I made several other puppets after that point. I spent a lot of time studying the commercially-made plush puppets my daughter had in order to determine how they were constructed. I figured out that there are two basic ways that the mouth liners can be made, and identified some basic construction choices that help make the open mouth functional yet compatible with the overall design.

Almost all of my recent creature dolls can be puppets with moveable mouths. I have made the mouth slightly open on some of my dolls, because it looks really cute, but I hadn’t made any with a full opening to use as a puppet.

For this puppet, I tried a new leg style on my baby creature pattern (normally I do a jointed leg) and I also set the arms in a little differently. I stabilized the mouth liners with foam interfacing and inserted a cotton liner so that the stuffing and insides are safe from your hand when its inserted. Although I am not sure I’d do this leg style for a regular doll since it’s not that flexible, it worked nicely for the puppet because the legs are stable but can also be forced down to sitting type position as you’re holding the puppet.

I also want to tinker with the mouth liner–the foam was a bit bulky. I may try something thinner, or perhaps line the inside of the mouth with the foam again but not have the foam also in the seam allowance.

I dressed this puppet in these adorable knitted overalls (adapted from pattern I purchased from Unique Knit by Caroline)–I had been saving this gorgeous Malabrigo yarn for YEARS and made a baby sweater and these pants, but never found the right doll for them. The pants fit this puppet perfectly and I made them into overalls to tie it all together.

My original vision for this puppet included a short, pageboy style wig but I think that both of these look adorable and hilarious. I love combining somewhat outdated/old looking wigs with these creatures.

I have always loved Folkmanis puppets, as well as my beloved Hosung monkey puppets, because they’re functional soft toys while also puppets. As much as I like more professional puppets, they’re made with a lot of glue and foam and really aren’t meant to double as a durable soft toy. I’m happy that I figured out how to make patterns that can be both. My experience with my daughter proved the amazing social-emotional and educational potential that puppets have–so this is a big incentive for me to make them.