Moving mouth Puppet

This pattern can be used for any animal which has a muzzle or long nose, such as a dog, horse, lion, and many imaginary animals as well.

Materials
  • Fake fur or shaggy felt
  • Needle and Thread
  • Scissors
  • Felt for mouth and ears
  • Light cardboard for mouth lining
  • Yarn or drapery fringe for manes
  • Additional materials such as pom-poms, felt, silk flowers, pipecleaners, etc.
  • Craft Glue
    1. Enlarge the pattern so that the squares on the graph are 1".

    2. Cut 1 body top and 1 body bottom from the fake fur.

    3. With right sides together and using a 1/4" seam allowance, stitch the sides of the puppet to mark (Green line on pattern).Be sure that you double stitch or back-stitch at the dot to form the corners of the mouth

    4. Using the same pattern as you used to cut the fur pieces, cut a mouth top and mouth bottom from felt. Make the mouth pieces only to the red line on the pattern.

    5. With fur pieces still right sides together, stitch each felt mouth piece to the appropriate body piece. The felt should be stitched to the right side of the fur fabric. Clip around the curved edges so that the fabric will turn more easily and turn the puppet fur side out.

    6. Whip stitch the straight edges of the mouth pieces together. The fabric at the back of the mouth should just butt together, they should not be overlapped. (Red line on pattern) .

    7. Cut eyes from felt pieces. (OR use buttons or wiggle eyes if desired.)

    8. Cut 2 ears from fur and 2 from felt, stitch or glue one felt piece and 1 fur piece together around the edge and slip a couple of pipecleaners between the layers of fabric before sewing the ears to the head.

    9. Dragon scales can be cut from felt or vinyl and sewn or glued in place. A dinosaur can be made just like a dragon, without wings or the firey breath.

    10. If you want your puppet to have a stiff mouth, use the patterns you cut for the felt mouth to cut 2 pieces of the cardboard. You may need to trim the cardboard to fit inside the mouth.(Using cardboard in the mouth makes it harder to use for some expressions, but can also help establish the puppet's personality and makes it easier for your puppet to pick things up with his mouth)

    11. Remove the cardboard from inside the puppet's mouth. Carefully apply glue to the cardboard and slip it back inside the puppet's mouth. Press the glue against the felt and allow to dry.

    12. Trim your puppet as desired. Make a yarn mane for a lion or horse, make a circlet of flowers to go around a neck or on a head.

      There, now your puppet is all ready to take part in your play

    To Moving Mouth Puppet Pattern

    To Mouth Patterns

    To Ears, Nose and Scales

    To Puppet Index

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