Fraggle puppet build (hand and rod)
Starting with the basics
I first started out by cutting out 2 claw-like shapes out of fleece, kind of like this:
I stitched both sides together using the henson stitch.
Then I cut the same shape out of 0.5’’ upholstery foam and adhered the two sides using contact cement.
Once I’d got the head shape, I started on the mouth plate. I traced around both sides of the mouth on the foam head onto a plastic tupperware lid and carefully cut the shapes out , roughened them up and glued them to the foam head. This was a mistake, however, because I forgot to sew the elastic grip inside.. Oops!
I could have ripped the mouthplate off to do it except I didn’t want to chance damaging the head, so I decided it would be best to sew it on with the mouthplate still attached. It was a bit of a struggle but I managed it.
I drilled some tiny holes into the mouth plate and used them to stitch the elastic on.
the mouth itself, I traced around the mouth of the foam head, now with the mouth plate adhered, onto some burgundy coloured felt, then out of some pink felt, I cut out the tongue shape and used a sharpie for the details.
Then I began to stitch the mouth onto the fleece pattern using a basic stitch.
To attach the fleece pattern to the foam For base, I put contact adhesive onto both sides and with the fleece still inside-out, carefully pulled it over the foam head base and pressed both sides firmly together, glued in the tongue and voila, the base was done!
Crafting the eyes
Next up I started making the eyeballs. I had some wooden ball/bead things which were the perfect size, so i got some strong wire and bent it into a kind of U shape, then put the holes of the beads through each end and bent the wire at the top to secure them into place. Then i painted them with about 3 layers of white acrylic paint, drew on some placeholder pupils with sharpie and sealed them with about 4 layers of PlastiCote matte spray sealant.
Making the tail
Whilst waiting for the paint to dry between layers, I started work on the tail. For the base of the tail, I used a sturdy steel wire and without cutting the wire, measured it around the body to make a ring to fit around the body and made an upward curve for the base of the tail, then cut the excess wire.
For the middle of the tail, I used a thinner, bendier wire, bent it unevenly and twisted it around the rest of the frame until it got to the longer end, then I threaded 2 nuts through and secured them and finally, I got some even thinner wire and twisted it around the rest to reinforce it.
Attaching the eyes
Once the eyeballs were dry, I needed to attach them. I had thought about what the best way to do that would be. I kind had to wing it for this part but to my surprise, it worked!
I first planned to bend the wire, feed it through the fleece, glue it in then add the beads on, but thinking about it some more, I realised that would be too fiddly, and a little risky, so instead I attached them after I had already completed them. What I did was cut an H shape into the top of the head, put those two ends through the small gap at the bottom of the eyes, stitched both together over the wire, and glued them in from the inside with contact cement.
Foam body
For the body, I put my hand in the puppet and measured upholstery foam around my arm, allowing about an inch, then glued both sides together, then I tapered the corners on each end and glued them together to get the body shape.
Adding the fur
Next I had to add the fur: I used the draping method for this. Without cutting the fur, I draped it over and pinned it as close as I could to the body, then cut the excess away. Nice and easy.
To stitch it together, I used the Henson stitch: This way, the seams wouldn't be obvious
To add fur to the tail, I simply measured the length of the tail wrapped the fur round to get the width and cut a long rectangle out of the fur. I turned it inside out with a pencil (which was a bit difficult) stitched it together with a basic stitch and turned it back the right way round. When I’d done that, I fed it through the wire structure (which was also a pain because of the weights)
The tail had a wicked bounce to it now, maybe too bouncy? And a little too heavy. I think there was one too many weights on the end, so i took one off; It was perfect after that.
Arms and hands
For the arms, I first patterned and cut out the shapes from fleece, I did the thumbs separately. I based this pattern off of the official fraggle puppets. For the inside I traced the same shapes onto foam with some small notches on the wrists and elbows to allow for more freedom of movement.
Hand Armature
Once I cut the hand shapes out and rounded off the edges, I split them into two halves (except the thumbs) then I started building an armature for the hands to make them poseable. It’s hard to explain how I did it but I’ll try:
I bent the wire to the shape of the hand, folding the wire to each finger, leaving some allowance at the top to prevent the wire piercing through the foam, also leaving some extra wire at each end and curling them round for the palm of the hand. I just made the thumb slightly shorter and curved it in towards the palm like an actual thumb would be.
Rod pockets
Before glueing the hands together, i made some rod pockets with the same fleece. I just did this by taking the rods I’d already made (more on that later) getting 2 tiny rectangles of fleece, making sure the end of the rod fits inside without poking out, and stitched around the shape of the rod for a snug fit so they could (in theory) easily slip in and out.
I then hot glued over the wire to reinforce it, then using contact cement, glued the rod pockets inside the hands and glued both sides of the hands together, as well as glueing the thumbs on; I made them one sided and just put a little hole in them for the armature to fit inside.
To finish the thumbs I sewed the fleece on using the Henson stitch again, which I also used for the arms and hands. I had to make sure to leave a little space for the rods to go in, I ensured this by leaving a gap at the bottom of the hands, inserting the rods into the pockets and sewing the remainder of the hands with the rods in, starting and finishing as close to the rod as possible. This then left me with a nice little hole for the rods to go in.
It was more or less the same principle for the legs and feet, except the feet have to be made separately then stitched on after.
Attaching the limbs
To attach the arms and legs, I sewed metal snaps onto each one so that they can pop on and off if necessary. By this point the puppet is almost done. It just needed hair, a baloobius (of course) and eyelids maybe?
Finishing touches
I decided I would give him some eyelids, I just draped the fleece over the eyes then pitched them to shape the eyeballs then cut and stitched them up using the Henson stitch. I also finally decided on a hair colour; I went through every possible option and nothing else looked right except for this bright pink. It seemed fitting for a fraggle because this particular shade of pink looks very 80s in my opinion.
The tail tuft was experimental. At first I thought I’d roll the feather trim up then sew it inside the tip of the tail, but I couldn't do this because the feathers would have just stood up stiffly rather than spreading out naturally; As well as that, The feathers on the trim I ordered were way sparser than the picture showed, so I had to use the trim quite sparingly, so here’s the solution I came up with:
First I got a matching pom-pom and made it into a weird mushroom like shape, then I wrapped the first layer of trim around the bottom of the mushroom and glued it in place, then I stuck the bottom of the mushroom into the tail hole and also glued that in. Then I basically just kept adding layers of trim, using the pom-pom as a base which could also hide any gaps or ribbon left on the trim. I’m not sure how substantial this will be but it seems to works for now; I’ll just have to search even harder for better trim next time!
The hair was easier. I cut a small hole in the fleece on the head, used another matching pom-pom for the base and glued the remaining feather trim to that, then fitted this hair piece inside the hole and glued it in with contact cement.
Lastly, I gave him a little haircut and he was good to go!
The hair was easier. I cut a small hole in the fleece on the head, used another matching pom-pom for the base and glued the remaining feather trim to that, then fitted this hair piece inside the hole and glued it in with contact cement.
Lastly, I gave him a little haircut and he was good to go!
(I should also mention that between sewing each part, I lightly brushed over all the seams with the end of a pin. This is a great technique to use if you want to make the seams appear invisible on fleece; although it works better with a higher quality fleece than the one I was using.)
The finished result
self-assessment
Overall, I think it went well, though there are some things that I could’ve improved upon:
I think the tail came out good; It ended up having a really nice bounce to it and I like how it looked after i trimmed it
The head shape turned out great
The limbs look very good and true to real fraggles
The colours were a good choice
The proportions are accurate
Use a higher quality fleece
Next time I will make sure the weight(nut) is easier to fit through the fur pattern without getting stuck
I will put some gaffer’s tape around the weights of the tail to reinforce them better (I just didn’t have any)
I will try to find better quality feather trim
Sew the elastic on the mouth-plate further from the edge so it doesn’t rip off (because that’s what happened in the end)
I might try out the tube technique for the legs next time to see if it’s any better and I will also make the heels of the feet a bit less prominent
I will try and make a proper bracket for the eyes; I just didn’t have the right materials. I will also use wooden balls without any holes so i can drill the holes in myself
I could have measured the eyelids a little better but they still fitted
I will use better quality fleece (anti-pill?)
I won’t use a black sharpie on the mouth next time because it smudged onto the tongue
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