How To Make A Foam Puppet Body

When making a foam head puppet, similar to the Muppets, you will likewise want a foam body.

To make a foam puppet body, you will need:

• 1″ foam
• Fleece or other cloth to cover the body
• A pattern
• Spray Adhesive
• Contact Cement or Hot glue
• Needle and Thread
• Razor blades or old scissors

I have found an excellent, yet inexpensive foam on Amazon that I use.

Step One: Trace the body pattern onto the foam

Trace your pattern onto 1″ foam. You can use a sharpie or other marker.

Most body patterns come in two parts. When tracing, if you can find a common side, you can draw the pattern as one piece and save on some gluing.

In the picture above, I have two body patterns drawn out, ready for cutting. You will notice how I put the two long sides together. This line will not be cut.

For a stronger puppet and to protect the foam inside the puppet, you may want to glue cloth to the foam before cutting out.

A cotton T-shirt is perfect for lining the inside of a puppet. It will absorb perspiration and make the foam stronger and prevent tears.

Cut the T-shirt apart. Spray fabric adhesive on the foam and then place the T-shirt cloth on the foam. Make it smooth and allow to dry before cutting.

Step Two: Cut out your pieces

After you have traced the patterns, you will need to cut them out. DO NOT use good scissors on foam. Foam will dull your scissors very quickly.

Use a razor blade or old scissors. I keep a box of 100 razor blades on hand. Foam dulls the blades quickly, so you will go through quite a few.

When cutting out the foam, keep your razor blade or scissor blades perpendicular to the foam. You want a nice square cut.

Step Three: Glue the body together

It is now time to glue the foam together. You can use spray adhesive, such as Gorilla Glue’s spray adhesive. I prefer using contact cement, such a s barge or Weldwood. If you want to avoid the fumes with contact cement, you can also use hot glue.

It is possible to build an entire puppet with just one type of adhesive, but I keep a variety on hand, including hot glue, Barge contact cement, spray adhesive, fabric glue and even rubber cement. Different adhesives work better for different applications.

Glue the long sides of your foam together, as well as any darts your pattern may include.

You will notice in the picture above, one of the patterns has two ovals in the middle. These are cut out and glued closed to create a waistline on the puppet.

The pink puppet to the right has a simple tube as a body. A 12-inch foam tube was made with roughly an 8-inch diameter. The neck was hot glued to it and the entire thing was spray-painted pink.

The arms are glued to it with hot glue. This is a simple and inexpensive way to make a puppet body.

Other puppet bodies are more complex. As mentioned earlier, you can taper the sides in to create a waist for the puppet.

Step Four: Customize your puppet’s body

To make an obese puppet body, additional foam can be glued to the belly area of your puppet body and trimmed into shape with scissors.

Large sponge balls can be cut in half and attached as breasts for a female puppet.

Sometimes, I add half circle foam pieces to the top sides of the body to create broader shoulders.

For a taller puppet, you can make a longer body. However, since the puppet will be on your arm, you will need to create a hole in the back of the puppet. If the entrance to the puppet body is below the head and neck at a distance greater than the length of your forearm, it will be difficult and uncomfortable to manipulate.

For a full-body puppet, where you are attaching legs below the body, you may need to place an entry hole on the back of the puppet. Ventriloquists generally prefer to control the puppet’s head and neck from a position higher up on the puppet’s back, as opposed to entering at the bottom as you would when working behind a stage.

Step Five: Cover the body with cloth or fur

If you will be covering the puppet’s body with a costume or shirt, it will not be necessary to cover the foam body.

The little girl puppet to the right has a bare foam body. The dress comes right up to the neck and the sleeves cover the arms.

(The picture was taken before fleece covered hands were added to the arms.)

To cover the body with fur or fleece, trace your pattern onto the material you are using. Sew up the tube and it will slide right over the body. Do this before attaching arms.

Once you have slide the body fabric over the foam, you will want to use spray adhesive or hot glue to attach it around the neck hole and the entrance hole for your hand.

You may need to hand stitch the darts in the pattern.

If you have customized the pattern, adding a belly bulge or breasts, you will need to drape your fabric over the body. Just using the original pattern will crush your additions and you will not get your desired effect.

Draping the fleece over your body:

• To drape the fleece (or fur) cut out a piece of material large enough to cover the entire body.
• With spray adhesive, spray the front half of the body lightly.
• Center the material on the center front of your body.
• Be sure any stretch in the material is running across the body, not up and down.
• Shape your material around the belly or breasts, smoothing it out.
• Once you have covered the odd shapes, smooth the fabric over the rest of the front of the body. You may need to pin it in place until the adhesive sets.
• Wrap the fabric around the body and center it along the back of the body. Trim a straight line up the center back where the two edges of the material will meet.
• With hot glue or spray adhesive, glue the material in place. You may also want to pin the material in place and hand sew the back centerline.
• Glue the fabric around the neck and hand entry holes, smoothing and darting as necessary. You may find you need to cut a couple darts and hand sew them to get a smooth edge.

Step Six: Attach the arms

Your puppet arms should be about the length of the body. Once the hands are attached, that will bring the total length to the right proportions.

Arms should be covered with fabric or fleece before attaching. You can attach them with hot glue, contact cement or hand sewing. Hand sewing will give you the most strength and durability.

Step Seven: Attach the neck to the body.

The neck should already be attached to the puppet’s head. When attaching the neck to the body, most puppet builders like to make the neck long enough to go through the body and be attached at the hand entrance on the bottom or back.

Attaching the neck tube at the base of the puppet body gives more movement to the puppet’s head. If movement is not necessary, the neck can be attached at the top of the body. This will still allow the head to be turned, look about and such, but it will not be nearly as fluid as attaching to the base.

If the neck is attached at the top of the body, the body should be lined with fabric before assembly. This will protect the inside foam for perspiration and feel more comfortable on the arm.

Be sure to check our other articles for more tips on building your puppet.

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