october 16, 2004

Sarah & Leo are getting married this afternoon, so I had time in the morning to work on the Poeppet. The Boy was an excellent help, as he played with the baby while I hauled out the sewing machine & set it up. Onward...

Step three: machine sew the Poeppet.

I was extraordinarily proud of myself for managing to sew the head in one continuous circle. Unfortunately, I still have the weird dents & flat patches when I turn it inside out. I wonder if I need to clip the seams, like I once read in a craft book. I've also thought about stuffing the head with batting to keep its shape. I'm just not sure how to secure batting inside the head, and I don't want Preacher to be pulling out a mess of cotton every time he puts on the Poeppet. Sigh.

Step four: design, cut out & machine sew a black suit jacket.

I don't know why I always wait on this step until after I've machined the puppet itself - it'd be so much easier if I cut out the large pieces at the same time. Oh well. I never said I was a smart puppet maker. This jacket was relatively easy to make - I just used the Poeppet pattern with a centimetre all-round for seams and fitting on top of the puppet body. I made Blake-puppet a black t-shirt, and this was basically the same thing with longer sleeves. I'm really pleased with the ease of designing this jacket!

I am not, however, pleased with the sewing!! I spent more than an hour trying to figure out why my needle jammed within 3 stitches every time I started a seam. The problem with being an optimistic seamstress with little experience and no skills to speak of is that I attribute all sewing problems to my own ineptitude before I consider other options. Turned out that the black bobbin is crap. I don't know why this little plastic thing would gum up the works so consistently, but as soon as I popped a white bobbin down below (my, that sounded smutty), the machine became my friend once more. So one of the eccentricities of this jacket will be that the left side is seamed in white on one side & black on the opposite. I hope Preacher doesn't look too closely - my whole aura of puppet professionalism (puppprofessionalism?) could be shattered!

Step five: design the jacket details.

As this puppet is to be modelled after '96 Fireball Poet (pictured right), there were a few more details to add to this suit jacket before I could move on to the face. First of all, there was the cravat. Much was made of this cravat at the time of its wearing, and I decided long ago that it would be one of those magnified details that anchors good caricature work. But first I had to figure out how I was going to use my ribbon.

The ribbon lapels were a bolt of inspiration from a higher puppet power. In the early stages of considering the suit jacket, I had toyed with the idea of cutting it like a real jacket with real buttons, but I soon realized that this idea was way beyond my skills. The satin ribbon (I thought) was a quick way of marking the lapels that I could just sew onto a flat black background. I could even hide the edges of the shirt V, with the cravat riding on top. Score!

Once I had pinned the ribbon to mark the lapels, everything started moving quickly. I cut out 2 large V's to fit the collar, one out of white felt & one out of maroon. Then, using the photo for reference, I trimmed the cravat shape and pinned the two pieces together. Here's how it looks with the details pinned carefully on the black jacket:

Step six: sew everything onto the jacket.

I had a bit of time after the picture was taken to sew the cravat onto the shirt V, but not to do anything else. I kind of want to machine sew the white V, but I should probably just hand sew it. Takes less time & less set up, plus I can do it and look after the baby at the same time. (When I machine sew, he likes to walk around my legs and get in the way of the highly-sensitive foot pedal. Scamp.)

Thus endeth the second puppet update. Remember: loose lips kill puppets. Or at least the surprise.

words & images (c) rocketmom, 2004.
as most puppetmaking concepts are pulled out of my butt, you're welcome to steal 'em.