Fifi's Craft: Dino Baby Puppets
With Fifi Colston
Who can resist cute puppet? Especially these baby dinosaurs! This pattern is a great base for dinosaurs, dragons or lizards too. Ive made it to fit a smallish adult hand (or a large childs hand), so scale it up or down to fit on a photocopier. I got all of my materials at Spotlight.
You will need:
Fifis Dino Baby pattern - available on my blog
www.fificolston.blogspot.com
1/2 metre of polar fleece (you can get away with less, but I like
to allow for mistakes!) I used yellow, pink and blue for my
puppets
Dacron stuffing (a small bag is plenty to do 4or 5 puppets)
Stiffened felt- get pink for the tongue and 2 other colours for
arms, legs and spines
Soft felt (for decoration)
Wobble eyes
Felt tipped pens (vivid markers)
UHU or other clear craft glue.
Sewing machine, thread, scissors etc.
Method:
Join the two A4 pattern pieces together with tape and cut them out. I have marked a 5mm seam allowance on them. You can allow more if you dont like sewing too close to the edge.
Cut out the polar fleece and felt pieces.
Sew the inside glove together at the side seams. Leave the top open.
Make the darts in the head then sew the body together, leaving an opening between the large dots on the pattern for your hand and an opening for the mouth.
Sew the two halves of the fleece mouth together along the straight edges, then sew it into the mouth opening with right sides together.
Glue the stiffened felt mouth pieces (any colour- it wont be seen) into the fleece mouth on the inside.
Hand sew the inside glove to the jaw on the inside, making sure the V shaped opening faces the opening on the outer body.
Turn the puppet right side out (a loop turner is great for doing tricky bits like the tail)
Stuff the puppet with Dacron filler. Dont put it in the inside glove part- push it around into the head cavity, leaving room for your fingers to operate the mouth.
Stitch the inside glove to the outer body around the opening.
Sew on the wobbly eyes.
Draw scales on the arms and legs with felt tipped pens. I used a white correction pen to make the nails on the claws.
Glue them to the puppet with clear craft glue.
Glue the spines, tongue and spots onto the puppet.
Put the glove on and you are ready for some dinosaur fun... ROAR!!!!
(TX: 11 October 2011)
