Panda Puppet

Last year I started sewing with fleece, it is a fantastic and versatile fabric. I love how it doesn't fray, has a little bit of stretch to it and it is lovely and warm. I have blogs to share in the future about a hot water bottle cover and some cosy hats but today's post is about a puppet I made as a Christmas present. The gift was for one of the recipients of the taggy owl which shows just how much time flies!

I like puppets as they make fun gifts and my daughter always likes to receive them. She now uses them on her own hand and they are a great way for little ones to tell stories and use their imaginations. I like puppets with shaped heads, in the past I have made them with flat faces and they were not as effective, I found a fantastic pattern by Pauline McArthur in October's Australian Homespun magazine. I subscribed to Australian Homespun last year and found a lot of lovely projects and inspiration. I was unsure about it at first as it was an e-subscription through Zinio but I really enjoyed getting the e-mail every month. I also found that the patterns were easy to download when needed, and it means you only have to store the patterns you use. The October Issue was my favourite as it was the annual kids' special issue.

Panda Puppet - Pauline McArthur design from Australian Homespun.

The puppet design I used was for a family of puppets with their own accessories although I chose to just do one, The design is great, it is fully lined and has a padded head. It is easy to follow with loads of photographs and a really clear cutting layout. The pieces come together really well and it is easy to line up seams to give a better finish. It took me a little while to get my head around how to insert the lining and leave the gaps for fingers. The padded head works really well and helps give the face an expression. As with the puffins and oystercatchers adding the eyes after the head is padded gives a better position and finish. Having the blue eyes is a lovely feature and makes them look really friendly. I love the idea of accessorising the pandas but decided to give mine a bow tie instead of a tie or a bag. I am unsure about who liked it more, the little boy I sent it too or his parents who got to demonstrate.