Read previous post - waiting on machine - here. 

After spending some time working on some other puppets, I finally gave up trying to organise the sewing machine and started hand-sewing the clothes for Doc.

Yes, that’s right. Hand sewing.

It didn’t take me as long as I thought. On average, about two days worth of work (with some margin to do other tasks) per clothing item.

I started off figuring out how to do some clothing. That was relatively easy. Thanks to Puppet Building (the alternate site for Puppet Vision blog; UPDATE 14 Aug 2009: the site is not available), I found a FANTASTIC (read: must use for beginner puppet makers) FREE book on puppet costume making. You can find it here. The book has everything from picking materials, to sewing basics, from making patterns to implementing them for every clothing item you need, and for a variety of types of puppets.

I printed the book out, and though it has a few vague areas (due to the numerous ways you can do things, and the ambiguity of some of the diagrams), it has been an excellent guide to this non-costumer.

The first step, according to the book, was to make a basic pattern using paper towels. You cover the body with a paper towel, cut an arc for the neckline and one for the armhole. Do the same for the ‘back’.

… I won’t go through each step of the costume making, as you can read much of it in the above book. I will give a bit of a summary of the process though. Using this pattern, I created a shirt for Doc, as well as a lab coat, and using the same process - different pattern, as it’s a different body shape - I made a tee shirt for another of the puppets.

Making the shirt was easy. But I did that second, so I’ll come back to it. I actually made the pants first.

To make the pants, you lay out some material over half the waist of the puppet, and cut a rectangle - enough to wrap around the leg comfortably, with some height for both the waist/hips and the hems at the bottom. Cut another piece the same size. Sew each piece up the leg, as far as it meets with the waist of the body of the puppet. Next, sew up the legs together at the front. This leaves a gap at the back (as pictured above).

As this puppet requires access to the bottom of the body (to get to the mouth piece), a gap in the back of the pants is necessary. The book explained how to make it; fold over the front flaps (visible above, folded over) and sew to leave a triangular gap in the groin area. Then, cut a rectangular piece of material, enough to cover the gap. Sew to the top of the pants. Below you can see the back of the pants, with the gap and cover. Now the puppeteer’s arm will be less visible.

Once that’s done, just hem the top of the pants and the legs. Fit the pants to the puppet, do some nip and tucks here and there. I actually narrowed the pant legs, as they were too wide for the puppet shape.

How easy was that?!

The front of the pants. Sorry for the crappy shot.

The book suggests giving the pants braces to hold them up, but I figured since the pants and shirt will be under a lab coat, I would just sew the shirt to the inside of the pants. Thereby keeping them up, and allowing their removal if needed later.

Back to the shirt… Ok, we have the pattern. Now we cut out the front and back pieces of the shirt.

Sew them together along the shoulders. Next, make some sleeves. The book suggested making a pattern, or working patternless. I decided to just measure out some material according to the arm width and height. As it turned out, I should have made a pattern, as the material was too big for what I needed.

Anyway, you end up with two rectangle pieces for the arms. Sew them to each side of the armhole; joining the front and back pieces together.

Sew down the sleeves, so that they become tubes. Then sew down the sides of the shirt… Now you have a piece of clothing!

Wow! And to think, I’m crap at costuming. Thanks to this book, I’m flying through it.

Ok, so from here I add buttons and buttonholes to the shirt front. I didn’t even know how to sew buttonholes by machine, but now I can do it by hand!

Next came a collar - the worst part of the shirt in my opinion.

It turned out a little too ‘Peter Pan’ (rounded) and not enough sharp corners. Anyway, the collar is just a curved piece of material, sewn to the edge of the shirt top. Here you can also see my buttons.

Once the collar was done, it was a matter of hemming the bottom of the shirt and giving it some cuffs. You can see the cuff in the bottom left —>

All that was left to do was to attach the shirt to the pants!

Between the shirt/pants and the lab coat, I gave Doc some hair. I had hoped to sew some wool (designed with a bit of a fringe, great to use as hair) together in a ‘mop’, but I resorted to gluing the hair on individually.

So the lab coat… Taking the pattern from the shirt, I just extrapolated the length of the material past to the knees.

Sewing the pieces together like the shirt, I gave it buttons, a collar (three collar pieces, which ensured less of a ‘Peter Pan’ look, and more of a lab coat feel… I was watching M*A*S*H at the time, which really helped getting the look of the coat right), plus a pocket.

There’s even a split down the back, to ensure a smoother look in combination with the puppeteer’s arm being in the way.

Beautiful! Add some glasses to the puppet, and attach the hands securely to the rope in the arms and Doc’s upper half is finished! (Shoes are still coming).

 So here’s a reminder of what he started out as…

and here’s a pic of the final product.

Whoohooo! Gorgeous! To think it was once a bunch of foam, material, glue and other various bits and pieces. He really looks quite like a doctor - the point of course - and he’s functional. And I can truly say, he was handmade. Clothes and all.

Read next post - making the feet - here.

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