october 18, 2004

The last two days have been moderately busy in the sense that my normal life has resumed, and in between child care & various social engagements within my family, I've had only a few moments to go forward with the Poeppet. And I'm sick. Achoo. But I have done a couple of interesting things in my few moments of puppetry.

Step six (cont.): sew everything onto the jacket.

I didn't have much of a problem sewing the shirt-and-cravat piece onto the suit jacket, as I hand-sewed it with white thread and was able to take a really long time getting it done. I was also able to hide most of the stitches under the seam of the cravat piece, so the shirt appears to float on the jacket as if I'd glued it.

(Glue was something I considered at a very early stage of the project, but ultimately even with my low opinion of my own sewing skills, sewing everything together is sturdier. Especially since I don't have a hot glue gun (or really any glue stronger than a Uhu stick.))

Sewing the ribbon was a chore. As these are very visible stitches, I really wanted to cop out & use the sewing machine. But considering my terrible luck with the black bobbin (not that I would've used it again; I'm not that stupid) and considering how &*%$ slippery the ribbon was to work with, I probably made the right choice. I spent all of this afternoon when I wasn't with Blake sewing carefully up the line of the ribbon & trying my best to fit it around the collar in one continuous piece. I was quite frustrated with this stage, as the shoulder seams needed a tuck, and my tucks have always been terrible (my tucks suck!). True to form, the shoulder tucks are messy, lumpy & different from each other. I still can't figure out how I might've done better - maybe if I'd marked the angle on the ribbon & ironed it. Eh. Sounds like a lot of fiddly work that would've made me even more frustrated than before. Still, it's done, and I think I'm the only one who will be really upset by the shoulder seam tucks. Or maybe you will, now that I've mentioned it.

Today's picture looks like yesterday's. But this one isn't held together with pins - rather with the intricate stitching of your optimistic narrator. Goody.

Step seven: snip divots in the curved seams to avoid puckering.

I got a little two enthusiastic with this step, and cut through the stitching in two places around the head. Yipe. I really didn't enjoy going back with white thread & fixing these spots, but it seems typical of the kind of day I've been having.

Step eight: sew on button eyes.

I like the whole idea of button eyes; I had no idea how difficult they'd be to sew onto one side of a felt pocket. Once I got going they were easy to secure, but placing them was a nightmare. I think that this will be the one step I'm going to do-over. The Boy is very supportive of the current eye placement, but I think the forehead is too long (not to mention that one eye is lower than the other! Paging Shannon Doherty...) I've been asked to sleep on it. For the sake of posterity, here is the malsewn face: You may notice that for all my eager snipping, the head still doesn't lie round. Garrr.

This ends your third puppet update. A secret puppet on the hand is worth two obvious puppets in the bush.

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