Those Popular Puppets

I'm delighted by the positive response my puppets have generated! I am asked lots of questions about them at shows, so I want to answer some of those before I offer a puppet pattern for you to download.

Backs of Raccoon, Cow, and Squirrel Puppets (showing tails)

I'm asked why I show tails and other features on the backs of my puppets. When I used to work with puppets to teach children about animals, I liked to have the puppets be as active as possible: hiding their faces shyly against my shoulder, climbing up my arm, scampering across my lap, wrestling with each other, and so forth. During these actions, a puppet is seen from all angles. I wanted them to be interesting --- and authentic --- from the back as well as the front. I wanted to show the animals' most distinguishing features so that the children would recognize them wherever they encountered them; in pictures, storybooks, television programs, movies, parks or zoos. That's why I also add hands, paws, hooves, or wings to the puppet arms.

Teddy Bear, Cat, and Rabbit Puppets - notice the different eyes

Why don't I use the commercial plastic movable eyes, rather than making eyes with layers of felt? The answer is that I don't want to produce choking hazards. Children in the age group who like to play with puppets are not likely to chew on them. They may, however, have little brothers and sisters who would. Small children will put anything in their mouths! One of mine tried to swallow a handful of small change when his grandmother's attention wandered for a moment. Another reason is that I like to think my puppets' felt eyes are more individual and expressive than those plastic ones.

Puppy Puppet front (outside) and back (inside) pieces showing stitching

One interesting question was,”How do you get their heads to be so firm?” I stuff them, of course, preferably with fiberfill. But the real “secret” involves what I do to the “wrong”(reverse) sides of the heads before I put the fronts and backs together. First I sew the two halves of the heads to the respective parts of their bodies. Then I turn them over so that I can work on the insides of the heads. I sew the neck --- which extends well up into what will be the head cavity --- to the inside of the face, using very small overcast stitches that catch just the surface of the felt and do not show through to the other side. (This takes a little practice, so you may want to try it on felt scraps before you attempt it.) I do the same thing to the back of the head and also stitch down any other loose edges. For example, the top of the lamb's gray head is sewn to the back of the scalloped white “wool”. The extra stitching gives the head more strength and solidity, so that it does not sag or wrinkle. Remember when stuffing the heads to leave enough room for the puppeteer's fingers.

Could you tell a story using these Reindeer, Walrus, and Polar Bear Puppets?

My favorite question came from a mother holding a beautiful baby girl about six months old. “It will be a long time before she is old enough to play with the puppets,” she said. “Is there some way she could enjoy them now?” I gave her several suggestions. Since the child will obviously be in a crib for some time yet, the most obvious thing would be to suspend the puppets from strings and hang them above her crib where she can see them easily. Another easy solution would be to pad a small bulletin board and cover it with felt, flannel, or fleece to hang near the child's crib or playpen. Small pieces of Velcro sewn or glued on the backs of the puppets will allow them to stick to the board. But they can also be detached and moved around the board to help the mother act out stories, rhymes, or songs. If longevity isn't an issue, the arms and bodies of the puppets can be stuffed with fiberfill, cotton, or fabric scraps and the bottoms sewn shut to make huggable soft toys. A little weight added inside the bottoms and they could even stand up by themselves. These were ideas that sprang immediately to mind. I'm sure you could all think of others.

Little Pink Pig Puppet with folded ears

Those of you who have been reading my blog posts for a while probably already know about the little pink pig puppet that started me designing and making puppets (April 17, 2013). I'm giving all of you a pattern (with instructions) that you can download to make your own little pink pig. (Click here to download.) The picture shows an alternate appearance for the pig. Just gently curl his ears forward and attach the tips to his face with a few tiny pink stitches. If you are doing a set of the Three Little Pigs, you might make one with upright ears, one with curled ears, and the third with one of each kind of ear.

Pig Puppet Pattern (Click to download)

I'd like to express a caution about size. My hands are small. Most children of an age to enjoy playing with hand puppets can wear puppets patterned to my hand size, especially with a little stuffing in the ends of the puppet arms. If you are going to be the puppeteer yourself, check your hand size against the puppet body pattern before you cut out the pieces. If the pattern is too small for you, cut out the body pattern from a folded piece of plain paper. Cut it apart along the fold. Place the two halves on a plain sheet of paper and move them apart until they are big enough to fit you (including a quarter-inch seam allowance on each side). Tape the half-patterns to the paper and draw a straight line across the neck edge and the bottom edge. Cut out the new pattern piece and you are ready to pin it to felt. Check to see if the head still fits the body. If not, enlarge the head in the same way. To make the pieces smaller you can trim them off along the outsides or cut them as described above and overlap the two halves until they are the right size. You will probably have to shorten them at the bottom, as well.

Whether you have small children or grandchildren or not, why not make a little pig for some little person to love?

Annake

This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

More Readers' Questions Answered

I apologize for taking so long to answer questions from your e-mails and our conversations at shows. I'll try to catch up on some of them now.

Holbein's portrait of Jane Seymour

Why is it called Spanish blackwork? (See Basic Blackwork, Part I, Oct. 6,2013.)

Because it became really popular in Spain and spread from there to much of Western Europe. The patterns and techniques were introduced into Spain by the Moors, who invaded Spain from Morocco in the year 711 AD and ruled parts of it for nearly 800 years. The Moorish embroidery was done on wool with silk, gold, and silver threads. The style gained greatly in popularity when it began to be done on cheaper and more readily available linen. There is a widespread story that blackwork was brought to England by Catherine of Aragon, the Spanish first wife of King Henry VIII, but this is not accurate. Chaucer describes blackwork in his Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400, so it was well established long before her arrival in 1509. Nevertheless, there's little doubt her marriage to the king made it even more popular. It was widely used for the clothing and linens of royalty and nobility throughout the reign of Queen Elizabeth I -- and beyond. This type of embroidery was popular in Renaissance Italy, as well as in Switzerland, Germany, and the Low Countries, although each area had its individual style. Altogether, this was the period of the most lavish costumes in human history. There's a lot of history to be found in needlework!

Redwork embroidery (antique Lithuanian tablecloth)

Is blackwork always done in black?

No, although it is usually done in a single color. Even when its popularity while done in black was at its height, it was rivaled by redwork. This was done in deep red with embellishment in gold and silver thread. When the Muslim religion began to have an influence on the Byzantine Empire (330 to 1453 AD), a style of redwork spread from Constantinople northward into Bulgaria, Romania, the Caucasus and Russia, reaching as far north as Finland. (Lots of geography in needlework, too.) It remained very popular in Russia throughout the centuries. A lady who recently visited Russia assures me that it is still abundantly available in gift shops there today. The Finnish work, done in a deep purplish-red (called “Turkey Red” in my youth) is still very similar to that done in the Byzantine Empire a thousand years ago.

A sample of drawn/pulled thread whitework

“Blackwork” can also be done in white. You would think this could legitimately be called “whitework”, wouldn't you? However, this would dismay many of our Scandinavian friends, for whom “whitework” is a specialty. They will tell you it isn't “whitework” unless it is used in combination with drawn-thread work or pulled-thread work.

Owls, done in a modern version of Holbein embroidery

Finally, there is a version of this stitchery which is done in multicolor and is quite attractive. This is called Holbein embroidery, in honor of Hans Holbein the Younger, a German painter who was court portrait painter for King Henry VIII. Many of his works show amazing examples of embroidered clothing and accessories. (see the portrait of Jane Seymour above). Holbein embroidery will be the subject of a future blog.

Unicorn (in progress) in white floss - NOT "whitework"

Why are the blackwork patterns called diaper  patterns?

The word “diaper” came into English from the French language, indicating a fabric with a distinct repeating pattern. Used originally for a rich silk fabric, it came to be associated with soft white linen or cotton fabrics used for tablecloths and towels. (Don't tell me you've never grabbed up a dishtowel for the baby in an emergency!) Finally, the term was applied to any all-over fabric pattern made up of small repeated motifs or units of design (often geometric figures) connected with each other by straight or curved lines. Now the word is used here in the USA primarily for baby bottom coverings -- most of which contain no fabric at all. Just for fun, I traced the word from French to Latin and finally back to an old Greek word, diaspeirein. It is the root of both “diaspora” and “dispersion”, and originally meant to sow seeds. Eventually it came to mean “to scatter “ -- whether seeds, patterns, or people. If you are collecting diaper patterns, you might want to check this page on String-or-Nothing.com. In the meantime, I'm still inventing and adapting patterns of my own and will have some for you to download on a future blog.

Her Highness is NOT amused!

I know a “katana” is a Japanese sword; why did you name your cat Katana?

Katana is also a form of calligraphy in which the characters end in curved points like cat's claws. The cat got her name because when she was a kitten she thought she was a ninja. Sneak attacks were her specialty. The first time she met J.D., she flew through the air, snatched the doughnut he was eating out of his hand, and disappeared with it. The look on his face was priceless. If only I had had a video camera running! She will be twelve in June, so she is too old and fat for ninja antics now. But she can still race up the stairs and across the back of the couch at a pretty good speed. Her “official” name is Princess Katana, but we don't use her title in her presence. She's already vain enough.

"Feliz Navidad," a one-of-a-kind crocheted tree

Love the [crocheted] trees! Do you sell the pattern?

No, I'm sorry, I don't. Each one is really a unique yarn “sculpture”:  there isn't a single pattern. So much depends on the weight and texture of the yarns, the size of the dowel I'm mounting the tree on, the height of the tree, the color combination I'm trying to emphasize, the weight and number of ornaments I may be adding, the type of finial for the top, etc. You can probably see at least 3 basic tree shapes in the photos on the November 21, 2013 blog post. There are several more that aren't illustrated. The trees are crocheted in independent layers, and the number of layers varies from tree to tree. I modify the layers as I go along to get the effect I want. Sometimes I start at the bottom and work upwards. At other times, I start in the middle and work both ways. I may use 6 or 7 different hooks in one project. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but I'm delighted you liked the trees!

There were also several questions about the puppets, which I will answer in the next Q and A blog. There will also be a puppet pattern to download.

Keep the questions coming!

Annake

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.