How to Make a Puppet with Basic Sewing Skills & Little Cost
Our church wanted to do a puppet show as part of their Vacation Bible Study (VBS), but we had a tight budget and only a couple very small puppets. I took on two common sayings as my inspiration: "Necessity is the mother of invention," and "Where there is a will, there is a way." I began to search the internet seeking instructions on how to make a puppet suitable for our cause. I thought surely someone had made these before and shared the wealth of their knowledge. Mostly I located instructions for small, simple puppets with mouths & arms that weren't functional. I located plenty of places to purchase puppets for $30 or more each (not to mention shipping & handling), but this was out of our budget. Finally, I wound up buying an eBook which I downloaded to my computer. The book promised to have great directions with illustrations, but if I wouldn't have had some sewing experience and a creative spirit, it would have been a disaster. Luckily, I had gotten just enough "clues" from the eBook that I was able to (after a lot of trial and error) figure out my own method of making a puppet.
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With basic sewing skills and armed with a glue gun, I impressed myself when I looked at the final product. I never would have guessed I could make a puppet that looked so professional and was so functional, but I did and you can too!
Pictured to the left are the first 2 puppets I made. It was great to be able to customize the skin, hair color & clothing of the puppets to match the characters portrayed in the VBS program our church was using. Pictured below is the puppet I made in order to record & photograph instructions to share with others. Seeing the positive response from my church and the children, I decided that I wouldn't stop there. I wanted to make detailed, specific instructions with actual color photos and have them freely available to the public (to save a few others the frustration I went through).
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Below are links to download a the free .pdf files. You will need to have Adobe Reader in order to view the files, and you can download it for free by clicking here. You will need to download one file with the instructions, one file with the printable patterns and one file with the photo references. When you click "Download File" choose the option to "Save File".
Step One: Download One Set of Written Instructions:
Each file below contains all of the written instructions. The first file is standard and the second file is a large print version:
Step One: Download One Set of Written Instructions:
Each file below contains all of the written instructions. The first file is standard and the second file is a large print version:
how_to_make_a_puppet_instructions.pdf | |
File Size: | 44 kb |
File Type: |
how_to_make_a_puppet_-_no_graphics-_large_print_instructions.pdf | |
File Size: | 331 kb |
File Type: |
Step Two: Download the Printable Patterns:
The file below contains the printable patterns you will use to cut out the pieces for your puppet. For your convenience, each pattern "template" prints on standard (8.5x11 in) letter paper and does not need to be printed in color.
The file below contains the printable patterns you will use to cut out the pieces for your puppet. For your convenience, each pattern "template" prints on standard (8.5x11 in) letter paper and does not need to be printed in color.
body_hand_and_arm_head_patterns.pdf | |
File Size: | 1786 kb |
File Type: |
Step Three: Download Color Photos for Reference:
The file below contains the full color photos you will be referenced to while reading the instructions. It is a compressed (zip) file, so once it is downloaded to your computer, right click it and select "Extract All":
The file below contains the full color photos you will be referenced to while reading the instructions. It is a compressed (zip) file, so once it is downloaded to your computer, right click it and select "Extract All":
photo_references.zip | |
File Size: | 1684 kb |
File Type: | zip |
If you have any questions or comments regarding downloading the files, or anything in the instructions, please feel free to contact me & I will try to help you out the best I can. I am not a professional by any means, but I am definitely willing to help problem-solve or clarify if needed. Thanks!