Felt Puppets

Things are starting to normalize around here, well sort of…Owen is back in school and I have a stack of projects I have in mind to help us get ready for the baby. I also have a little baby series in the works which will start at the end of this month! My to do list keeps growing and growing!

As I whittle my list down, I thought it would be fun to revisit a post I did for Whip Up back in September.

It’s a fun one to make and play with your kids.

Find the original post here.

Hello Whipup.net readers! I am thrilled to be here.

When Kathreen asked me to guest post she said to post about what has been on my mind lately. My thoughts immediately turned to my kids and how I want to pass on the legacy of working with their hands and being creative.

I had this puppet project idea in the back of my mind all summer and decided now was a great time to finally do it with them.
I split the project up over a few days and did things in stages so as to not overwhelm them {or me}. We started with a sewing lesson.

For my two, almost three, year old I made felt lacing cards. There are two felt rectangles that I punched holes in with a paper hole punch. I actually broke my hole punch, so punch at your own risk if you try this. 🙂 I then had him whip stitch the holes with yarn. He did great for about 5 minutes and got halfway up one side then lost interest.

Luckily his older brother was very much into this project and finished his sewing for him. For my six year old, I also taught him how to whip stitch but with needle and thread. We cut the sleeves off some ruined wool sweaters at an angle and sewed up the angled ends. I got the from idea here. His stitches weren’t perfect, but he and I were so proud of his effort. It surprised me to see how much he really enjoyed sewing.

Later, I sat down and made some puppets of my own. 
Here’s a quick run down of how I made the felt rat:

1. Cut two oblong felt semi-circles that are just larger than your hand with fingers close together.
2. Take one of the pieces and cut out an eye shape. I used a cereal bowl to help me achieve a nice curve.
3. Using that same curve cut some triangular mouth pieces. You need two curved pieces for the outside of the of mouth and two flat pieces for the inside of the mouth. You also want to make the bottom mouth pieces just a bit smaller than the top.
4. Take the inside mouth pieces {with the flat ends} and make some mouth embellishments. Cut your ear pieces.

1. And sew them together except for the tongue. That will be sewn in later.
2. Now take your curved mouth pieces and sew them to the top and bottom pieces of the front of your puppet.
3. Then add the inside mouth pieces and sew them to the top and bottom mouth pieces only.

1. Line the top and bottom pieces together and sew. When you open it up…see the tongue. 🙂
2. Line up the front and back pieces and pin the ears in. Sew all the way around.

Now…The puppets were ready to be dolled up. So we pulled out all my scraps and embellished our puppets using a hot glue gun. It would have made for better quality puppets to sew everything on, but with kids they enjoy the project more if it comes together quickly. And to be frank…so do I! 🙂

My two year old’s felt lacing cards became a funky little robot.

My older son and I made our sleeve puppets into mice. I didn’t plan on having so many rodents, but it just worked out that way. The orange one almost became a cat, but it looked strange so I ripped the ears off and gave Owen’s rat a sister.

We wanted to debut our new puppets with a puppet show after bath that night.

They ended up eating each other most of the the time. 🙂 But I should have seen it coming when I made the snake and the bear.

All in all it was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to try another project with them that stretches their creative abilities.

I think the only thing better than exploring my own creative outlets is sharing them with the next generation.

Hope you’re enjoying your day!