Rainbow Puppets! Blue Pt 3 - Sewing!
Hey readers!
Last time we were hanging out together, I had just dyed by hands blue. Also a puppet, but mostly my hands. With hands that look like they were on a Gargamel hosted cooking show, I set out to sew together the puppet.
You have seen me assemble a few heads now, and this one wasn't all that different. The triangle shaped mouth that I hoped would give the puppet a totally unique look really isn't all that noticeable. It is always interesting to me the things I spend a lot of time on that are just invisible in the finished product. It's ok, I will try again on a fleece puppet and see if that makes a difference. Learning!
This head looks really odd with nothing attached to it, including its body. It doesn't have enough detail yet to look like an actual head, so its just this totally weird furry thing with a black void in the center. This angle is kind of horrifying. I am finding myself staring at it like it has some sort of pull over me. I need to move on.
I realized that I had cut out and sewed together the fabric parts of the body, but without the foam those are a little useless. I really wanted to avoid using the contact cement again. It really shouldn't be used indoors and despite JustLeah constantly talking about how great it smells, it is kind of dangerous, I guess.
So I decided to give hot glue a try. I figured that the parts wouldn't move as much as the mouth and head, so maybe I could get away with it. I immediately regretted that decision. There really is no replacing contact cement when working with foam.I wound up burning my pale blue hands and leaving big gross globs of glue to deal with. Contact cement is a cleaner, more effective, albeit smellier way to do it.
With the foam torso drying, I set to working on the arms. I am again reminded of how weird it is to have random puppet body parts just sitting around in your house.
I wonder if Dexter was ever parodied on Sesame Street. They did Glee, Game of Thrones and even Stranger Things (sweet Barb reference at 44s) but I think serial killers might be a little harder to convert into family friend entertainment with a lesson. Though those red yarn blood splatter maps would fit right in to a Sesame Street episode if they weren't about murder and stuff.
I have completely lost the narrative flow of where I was going with that. You are probably watching Cookie Monster as the Demagorgon right now anyway so I can pretty much do whatever I want.
Making arms is pretty easy, after tracing the arm design you want onto two layers of fabric, just run your sewing machine along the line, being careful around the fingers especially. For these puppets, I am skipping the hand inserts and arm rods I did previously. While they are cool, the amount of work they require doesn't have enough payout for me and my puppets. These folks will never find themselves in front of a camera, and if they do, their are hand rod alternatives that can be removed and attached.
Once the sewing is done - don't forget to leave the end of the arm open - you can flip the whole thing inside out. That is a pretty easy task too, no matter what other people say!
As I said before, I was going to sew the arms into the torso this time while fitting everything. It worked out better in the long run, even though I was wrestling with the arms to keep them out of the way of the sewing needle. Not literally of course.
All that was left to do was assemble all the newly sewn bits and pieces. This is always the part of the process I like the best. Now we have a blank canvas and the puppet's personality can really start to take shape!
I have a new toy I want to try out for this puppet. It isn't exactly new, but I hadn't opened the box so its new to me.
Keep making cool stuff!
Until next time,
JoshPrime
Last time we were hanging out together, I had just dyed by hands blue. Also a puppet, but mostly my hands. With hands that look like they were on a Gargamel hosted cooking show, I set out to sew together the puppet.
You have seen me assemble a few heads now, and this one wasn't all that different. The triangle shaped mouth that I hoped would give the puppet a totally unique look really isn't all that noticeable. It is always interesting to me the things I spend a lot of time on that are just invisible in the finished product. It's ok, I will try again on a fleece puppet and see if that makes a difference. Learning!This head looks really odd with nothing attached to it, including its body. It doesn't have enough detail yet to look like an actual head, so its just this totally weird furry thing with a black void in the center. This angle is kind of horrifying. I am finding myself staring at it like it has some sort of pull over me. I need to move on.
I realized that I had cut out and sewed together the fabric parts of the body, but without the foam those are a little useless. I really wanted to avoid using the contact cement again. It really shouldn't be used indoors and despite JustLeah constantly talking about how great it smells, it is kind of dangerous, I guess.
So I decided to give hot glue a try. I figured that the parts wouldn't move as much as the mouth and head, so maybe I could get away with it. I immediately regretted that decision. There really is no replacing contact cement when working with foam.I wound up burning my pale blue hands and leaving big gross globs of glue to deal with. Contact cement is a cleaner, more effective, albeit smellier way to do it.
With the foam torso drying, I set to working on the arms. I am again reminded of how weird it is to have random puppet body parts just sitting around in your house.
I wonder if Dexter was ever parodied on Sesame Street. They did Glee, Game of Thrones and even Stranger Things (sweet Barb reference at 44s) but I think serial killers might be a little harder to convert into family friend entertainment with a lesson. Though those red yarn blood splatter maps would fit right in to a Sesame Street episode if they weren't about murder and stuff.
I have completely lost the narrative flow of where I was going with that. You are probably watching Cookie Monster as the Demagorgon right now anyway so I can pretty much do whatever I want.
Making arms is pretty easy, after tracing the arm design you want onto two layers of fabric, just run your sewing machine along the line, being careful around the fingers especially. For these puppets, I am skipping the hand inserts and arm rods I did previously. While they are cool, the amount of work they require doesn't have enough payout for me and my puppets. These folks will never find themselves in front of a camera, and if they do, their are hand rod alternatives that can be removed and attached.
Once the sewing is done - don't forget to leave the end of the arm open - you can flip the whole thing inside out. That is a pretty easy task too, no matter what other people say!As I said before, I was going to sew the arms into the torso this time while fitting everything. It worked out better in the long run, even though I was wrestling with the arms to keep them out of the way of the sewing needle. Not literally of course.
All that was left to do was assemble all the newly sewn bits and pieces. This is always the part of the process I like the best. Now we have a blank canvas and the puppet's personality can really start to take shape!I have a new toy I want to try out for this puppet. It isn't exactly new, but I hadn't opened the box so its new to me.
Keep making cool stuff!
Until next time,
JoshPrime
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