How To Cover A Puppet With Fleece Or Other Fabrics

There are a lot of ways to cover a puppet. You can use spray coatings, latex, electrostatic flocking, and hand painting. You can even dye the foam, but for durability and convenience, it’s hard to beat fabric.

Let’s take a moment to talk about fabric. There are three things you want to look for in choosing fabric to cover a puppet.

• The first is stretch. Stretch materials are much easier to pattern and fit the non-stretch materials.
• The second is a solid or random color pattern. Dizzy prints and bold patterns can overpower the look of a puppet.
• Third is texture. Synthetic fibers and fabrics offer a variety of textures.

The most common fabric option is polar fleece. Polar fleece is a knit fabric used in blankets and outerwear. It’s available primarily as a double sided fabric, but there are single sided fleeces. Polar fleece has good stretch and the better fleeces are tightly knit without visible lines.

Lycra fabrics more commonly called Spandex offer vivid color options and amazing stretch. Many types of lycra can stretch two or three times their width. Lycras are also UV reactive sometimes so they’re useful for black light puppetry.

Stretch furs and synthetic novelty furs are increasingly common options for puppets. These fabrics come in a variety of styles. Look for the ones with stretch and a minimum of shedding fo furs offer a variety of styles and finishes as well. Some furs do come on a stretch knit backing, but most do not. One key to working with furs is choosing the right pile. Pile height is the length of the fur itself.

Antron fleece is a very expensive fleece. It is often called Muppet fleece. Most polar fleeces can’t be died easily, but Antron can. Antron fleece is available only in white, but you can purchase it dyed from a couple sources. The price of the fleece is roughly double, but can save you a lot of time, trial and work.

How do you dye fabric and fleece? To dye fabric you’ll need a heat source. A common kitchen burner set works great. You’ll also need some stock pots used only for dying. A set of measuring spoons, heavy rubber gloves, and a sink. Know how much water your pot will hold. It does make a difference when measuring and adding dyes.

It’s helpful to have some metal tongs and a good wooden stir stick. Look for dyes made for synthetic materials. Rit Dye comes in powder and liquid, but there’s also a few other retail brands. You’ll also want some salt. Salt is a fixative for dye. While your water’s heating up, you want to pre rinse the fleece you’re planning on using. Pre rinsing ensures a good even dye job without dark patches are blotchiness.

Take notes and keep samples of the dyes you’re using. You can mix and experiment with dye to achieve a rainbow of colors. Once the water reaches the boiling point, it’s time to add the dye. Knowing how much dye to add is a lot of trial and error. That’s where the notes help. The best tip is to start with less and add more until the desired color comes up. You can also test dye small pieces of fleece to avoid wasting a lot of good fabric. Be sure to add plenty of salt and stir the pot until all the dye is dissolved.

Add the fleece. Once the fabric is in the pot, start to stir and keep the fabric moving, the color should come up immediately. If it’s still too light, after a few minutes, you’ll probably need more dye. Fabric looks darker when wet, so be sure to go a little darker than your desired color. Use the tongs to get the fabric out and make sure that you rinse it thoroughly. Now it’s ready to be air dried, and thrown into a dryer.

Dyed Antron fleece has a fuzziness to it and over time the fleece will pill even more. Some people like that fuzzy look, but what you do if you want a fleece finish without the pilling. The only option is to shave the fleece with scissors or a set of electric clippers. You will need high quality clippers to cut the fiber. Make sure to the clippers oiled. You will also want a pet comb to brush the fibers out before trimming.

Shaving fleece is a tedious process. Begin by combing the fleece in all four directions. Raising the pile height as high as you can. Begin by holding the clippers at a consistent angle. Cutting into the pile of the fleece steadily as you can.

Once you’re done with your first pass, comb the fleece in all four directions again and repeat the shaving process. Comb and shave as many times as you feel it necessary to get the desired finish. You can also use the clippers to shave fur to achieve a number of different effects. The other option with fur is to wait and trim the fur on the puppet.

Now that we have our material, it’s time to start making the fabric patterns. The easiest patterns to make are the ones without darts such as the fabric pattern for the ear. We can trace the ear shape, adding a bit around the edges. The stretch of the fabric will do the rest.

If the puppet has halves that are symmetrical, then we can make the fabric patterns symmetrical, meaning we create one pattern for one side that will then be mirrored on the other side. To do this, we’ll need a patterning fabric that’s similar in stretch to our actual fabric. Try to find a fabric that’s thin enough to see the seams of the foam through. If nothing else, an old white t-shirt is fine.

Making fabric patterns is a six step process.

• You start by draping the fabric over the shape to be patterned.
• Next, you pin the fabric to the shape, trying to create as few seems as possible.
• Next comes darting where you cut the scenes you’ve pinned to create darts that will be sown to conform to the shape.
• After that you clean up the seams in lines you’ve created, making sure there are no wrinkles are excess fabric.
• The fifth step is transferring the pattern prototype to paper.
• Finally the sixth step is to label and make notes on your paper pattern for future reference.

In the draping process, you’re just trying to get a feel for which way the fabric lies best and for which direction the stretch works best in. Usually that’s horizontal across the width of the shape.

In the pinning process you’ve gotten an idea of where the fabric lies best and now you’re using the pins to hold the fabric as you determine the best places to actually cut the seams.

Once you’re sure of your seam location, you can begin to cut the darts. Do this by trimming away the excess fabric that folds above your seam area.

Try to make as few seams as possible. If you’re not happy with the seams you’ve cut, this is the time to get a new piece of material and start again.

The cleanup stage is where you trim the fabric along all the seam lines and along the front and back, cut away any fabric that isn’t necessary. Repin and stretch out wrinkles if you need to.

It’s a good idea to rough cut the seams with large scissors and then go back using finer scissors to cut the actual edge.

Once you have the fabric prototype, it’s time for step five. Transfer the pattern to paper. By pinning the prototype over paper and tracing with a pencil, you can further clean up the lines of the pattern during this tracing.

The final step is to label the paper pattern and to make any notes that you might need later. You can then cut out the pattern. Repeat this process for the body and for the arms.

Now you’re ready to cut out and sew the fabric pieces together. There are two ways to sew the pieces together by hand or by machine. Both ways have their advantages.

• Machine sewing is the fastest and strongest way to sew fabric together, but you need a machine and you need to know how to use it.
• Hand stitching is the best way to create a seamless look with fleece, especially Antron fleece, but it’s slow.

You begin by transferring the patterns to the fabric. Be sure to reverse your patterns. You’re going to need two sides to cover the entire puppet.
It’s best not to cut out the arm pieces before sewing. Double over enough fabric for both arms.

This way you can machine sew the arm pieces and then cut them out. Be sure to add some seam allowance around every edge. You can always cut it off if you decide to hand stitch a particular area.

Make sure all your pieces are cut out before sewing. You can cut the seam allowance away from the edge if you are hand stitching since you’re sewing the seems directly to each other.

Remember the mouth never has a seam allowance since it’s going to be glued down to the mouth edge. Pin the pieces flat against each other as best you can. You’re going to want to use the smallest stitch possible.

Sew in right on the edge of the fabric. The less material your needle grabs, the flatter the seam will be. Be sure to tie off the thread every two or three stitches.

Sew the darts as flat as possible, pulling the edges of the fabric together. Machine sewing is much faster and much stronger. Sew the rest of the body, neck and head seams together using the machine.

Be sure to trim the threads and the seam allowance as closely as possible without cutting your stitches. Sewing machines can walk over pins, meaning they can sew without hitting the pin.

Now it’s time to sew the arms. The toughest part is stitching in between the fingers. A good approach for this area is to walk the machine over two or three stitches right in between the fingers. This gives allowance for cutting the fingers apart later.

The best way to sew the head and the neck pieces together is to turn the neck piece inside out and place it inside the head. Make sure that the fabric is good side to good side. Always pin seams together to make sure they line up correctly.

Now it’s time to turn the fabric pieces right side out and cover the puppet.

We’ll start with the arms. Begin by turning each finger just enough to start it over the foam. This is a delicate process. Take your time and make sure the fingers are lining up correctly.

Carefully work the fabric up and onto the fingers, squeezing them together and turning the fabric as you go. Once the fabric is on the arm, you can reposition the fingers and pull out any wrinkles you might have.

If you have a lot of excess fabric, you may have patterned too loosely. You can pull the fabric off and sew it smaller.

If you are using doll joints to connect your arms to the body, hot glue the doll joint to the top of the foam arm piece. After you have placed the fleece over the arm, use the hot glue gun to seal the end of the fabric around the doll joint carefully.

On many constructions, you will place a snap or other connector in the hands of your puppet to attach arm rods. If this is the case, you will need to provide access through the fleece to the connector.

Locate the arm rod access hole under the hand fabric, if you have one, and cut a slit for it in the fleece. You can then lightly hot glue the fabric to the edges of the opening. Don’t use too much glue here. Test fit the rod connection and repeat the process for the other arm.

Covering the body is much easier.

Collapse and compress the foam body and place it inside the fabric bag. The goal is to line up the front and back seams of the foam with the front and back seams of the fabric.

Once this is done, you can glue down the top and bottom of the fabric using hot glue or contact cement. Hot glue tends to be a bit faster. Again, foam is an insulator so make sure the glue has cooled before moving on to another section.

Take some time to find the best arm placement for the puppet arms. Mark the spot with a pin and then measure the spot so you can find the mirror location on the other side. Be sure to take notes of your measurements for future reference.

If using doll joints, cut the access hole using sharp scissors, and then insert the arm through the hole. Make sure this placement is where you want it. Once the doll joint grommet is attached, it’s very difficult to take off. You can also glue to sew your arms in place.

Now we have a completed body and arms.

To cover the head, begin by turning the fabric right side out. Pull the head fabric up onto the neck sleeve and onto the foam head through the fabric mouth. This may seem odd, but the mouth is the widest opening in the fabric. Take your time and work the fabric until the seams are even. Be sure there aren’t any wrinkles.

You can glue the fabric to the head with hot glue, our contact cement, whichever you choose. Start with the center marks top and bottom, and then do the corners.

Use only as much glue as you need and do this in small increments. Attach the fabric as closely to the mouth lining as possible. Don’t use too much glue in the corners or it may spill out and onto the mouth.

Be sure to press and hold the fabric into the corner until the glue has cooled. Then you can attach the rest of the edges.

Once you have covered head, you will need to slow down the neck edge. A free arm sewing machine is the best tool for this. Otherwise, you’ll have to hand stitch or glue the neck sleeve down.

You should now have completed covering your puppet with fleece or other fabric and it is time to add the facial features and hair. It is easiest to add ears, nose and hair after the puppet is covered with fabric.

I will have articles on these techniques soon. Be sure to check out my article on the wide variety of options available to you for covering your puppet HERE.