making hand puppets for 6 year olds

I asked my sons teacher if she needed anything for the class, and she
told me they'd like some puppets.

I had a look at some websites, but all the hand puppets for sale of
people were white or really expensive - as about 1/3 of the kids in my
sons class are black or asian I don't want to give them all white
puppets.

So I thought I'd have a go at making them. I'm fairly competant at
sewing, but I'm not really sure how to start. I know how to make rag
dolls with shaped faces, but not sure how to turn them into hand
puppets.

Any ideas or useful websites? I've tried google, but the sites seemed
to be offering very simple flat puppets.

TIA

H

noone wrote:

I asked my sons teacher if she needed anything for the class, and she
told me they'd like some puppets.

I had a look at some websites, but all the hand puppets for sale of
people were white or really expensive - as about 1/3 of the kids in my
sons class are black or asian I don't want to give them all white
puppets.

So I thought I'd have a go at making them. I'm fairly competant at
sewing, but I'm not really sure how to start. I know how to make rag
dolls with shaped faces, but not sure how to turn them into hand
puppets.

Any ideas or useful websites? I've tried google, but the sites seemed
to be offering very simple flat puppets.

TIA

H

Google turned up some sites. Also a previous post (of
yours?) to sewnews.
http://sewing.about.com/library/bl_hp.htm
http://www.robinsfyi.com/fun/hobbies...andpuppets.htm
http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/puppets.html
http://www.fastq.com/~jbpratt/educat...me/puppet.html
http://www.knowledgehound.com/topics/dolls.htm
.....there are more. Just go to google.com to search.



--

Joanne @ stitches @ singerlady.reno.nv.us
http://bernardschopen.tripod.com/
Life is about the journey, not about the destination.

noone wrote:
I asked my sons teacher if she needed anything for the class, and she
told me they'd like some puppets.
Any ideas or useful websites? I've tried google, but the sites seemed
to be offering very simple flat puppets.

Sock puppets? The socks can be any color you want...

liz young

"noone" wrote in message
...
I asked my sons teacher if she needed anything for the class, and she
told me they'd like some puppets.


Your desire to make puppets of different races is admirable.

The key to making puppets for one hand is that you're really just creating a
sheath around the arm and hand.

You can create a round head for the puppet by sewing together pointed ovals
(like teardrops, but with two pointy ends). Five make a good circle shape.
Alternativly, you can draw two circles and sew them together, but then your
puppet will be round and flat instead of fully dimensional.

The mouth of a hand puppet is really a circle or oval, folded in half. You
make it talk by closing and opening this flap. If you've ever seen kermit
the Frog, his mouth is a good example of the bent flap mouth, only his mouth
is a large diamond shape. Cut a slit horizontally in the head to accomodate
the mouth. Think pac man.

The body can be as simple as a cone shape or sleeve shape attached to the
head at the neck with a hole for the arm to go up into the head. Attach
arms at the cone and use small sticks to operate them. Once you've got the
basics you can experiment with differently shaped heads.

Good luck.

--
Margaret Robinson
Toronto

http://www3.sympatico.ca/moogie.robinson/index.html

http://www.puppetpatterns.com/easy.htm


I found this on google.

Pogonip wrote:
noone wrote:

I asked my sons teacher if she needed anything for the class, and she
told me they'd like some puppets.

I had a look at some websites, but all the hand puppets for sale of
people were white or really expensive - as about 1/3 of the kids in my
sons class are black or asian I don't want to give them all white
puppets.

So I thought I'd have a go at making them. I'm fairly competant at
sewing, but I'm not really sure how to start. I know how to make rag
dolls with shaped faces, but not sure how to turn them into hand
puppets.

Any ideas or useful websites? I've tried google, but the sites seemed
to be offering very simple flat puppets.

TIA

H


Google turned up some sites. Also a previous post (of yours?) to sewnews.
http://sewing.about.com/library/bl_hp.htm
http://www.robinsfyi.com/fun/hobbies...andpuppets.htm
http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/puppets.html
http://www.fastq.com/~jbpratt/educat...me/puppet.html
http://www.knowledgehound.com/topics/dolls.htm
....there are more. Just go to google.com to search.