Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone has a good supplier for puppet clothing? I'm looking to probably get some bulk clothing that's fairly inexpensive. Anyone know of anyone good and reasonable?

I don't know of anyone who specifically supplies clothing for puppets. The best I've ever found are clothes specifically for 'people puppet' brand puppets; ie. not for use on your own builds if they are different sizes.

I find the best thing is to use this free book on making costumes:
http://www.puppetpub.com/costumes.html

I use to buy wholesale puppets from Sunny Puppets in Orlando Florida http://www.sunnypuppets.com/
I would then use the clothing from there puppets on mine and buy thrift store clothing for the sunny puppets and sell the puppet at the wholesale price.They on occasions have sold the outfits separately.

Here is a place that sells there clothing as well

http://www.puppetville.com/store-categories-Puppet-Clothes_1704221.html

Other than that you would have to custom make them as Na suggested or try buying size 2-3 toddler clothes which fits most standard 28" to 30" puppets.

Your puppets look big enough for real people clothes. Children's clothes at a thrift store may be a source.  LOL! once I did like three videos I realized I needed clothes.  So my main charactor is wearing my shirts and quick thrown together stuff. Short sleeve shirts can be easily coverted.

I'm actually thinking of doing smaller puppets in more of a bulk kind of thing

You can take clothing that will fit your puppets, that you buy at a thrift store for example. Lay it out and trace it to make your own design. What size are your puppets I might have a few doll outfit patterns that would work.

If you are just looking for basic T-shirts. Try a t-shirt wholesales. Such as http://www.jiffyshirts.com/?category=Kid%27s%20Shirt&colorGroup=Neon&size=6%2D12M

I recently used this company for dress cloths. Www.tinytux.com. Much cheaper than I I had to make them.  Also, amazingly enough all of what we purchased was made in America.  I used it on for this puppet...http://www.outoftheboxpuppets.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=394. 3T fit great.

Julie

As others have said, small size children's clothing works perfectly for larger puppets.(our people puppets are the size of an 18 month old child.) However, we also have much smaller hand puppets (from 15 1/2 inches up to 22 inches). It is really easy to draw up simple designs such as t-shirts etc and then modify the designs as you want them. You can also use small children's and/or babies'  commercial clothing patterns, then reduce the size to what you need. Search your local thrift shops as people often give away old patterns and you can pick them up for next to nothing.

If the puppets are really small maybe dolls clothing would work?

You can also use small children's and/or babies'  commercial clothing patterns, then reduce the size to what you need. Search your local thrift shops as people often give away old patterns and you can pick them up for next to nothing.

Great idea! Although I know about using kids' clothing, I'd never actually thought about using the patterns and just resizing them. I always look for clothing patterns when I'm in an op shop, but that was just for me

Dollar Stores!!! 

Yes Na,I've become somewhat of a home expert at resizing patterns. I had to resize a dress pattern size 6 to fit my 3 & 8 year old granddaughters. Then in February I was asked to make a simple wedding dress for a friend-but she had put on a few kilos since she bought the pattern late last year. So, now I can size up or down!

Hey Na-just as a p.s. thought. We have just been asked to make a large mosquito & fly for educational purposes. The diagrams have had to be enlarged by 3 & 4 times for what the customer whats. So the resizing continues!

Yeah resizing is generally a good idea for patterns. Thank science for printers and computers!

For hand puppets you can use large sleeves from shirts or pant legs as a base.  I made a puppet "Professor Lagunis" and used a white shirt and was even able to use the sleeve as a collar and put a tie around it.

I'm really looking to buy bulk quantities, so making them isn't what I was looking for.

Have you thought about approaching someone to make them in bulk for you? I know Staceyrebecca (aka Stacey Gordon) once got someone to make her a costume... I think the person actually did seamstressing for humans. ... It's probably an expensive idea though.

yeah I'm looking for wholesale and inexpensive

Well then back to square one: all I've ever seen are generic clothes for some manufacturers. (And they're probably made in China anyway )

yeah I'm looking for wholesale and inexpensive

Whether you buy from a sewing plant or from china you are looking at large minimum purchase orders of each clothing item ordered. Your best bet may be to get a local seamster or seamstress to work out a deal with you.

if things go my way, I'll be looking at large quantities

I agree with Billy that you might want to look into finding a local seamstress that can help you out at least at first.   You can always look into moving to a larger manufacture in the future but that could cost thousands of dollars to get going. Big investment up front as a rule.

If you know what you want (a pattern would be helpful), run an ad on craigslist.  Note that you are looking to find someone to sew in bulk, and you are willing to pay ___ per item.    I have done this for some other stuff and was swamped with replies.  One of my criteria was to ask each person to sew one of the items for me and return it (I cut it out, mailed it with directions and paid return postage).  That's a quick way to sort out who can and cannot sew well, and the amount of time it takes them to complete an item once they receive it.

If you are going to be near Vegas in August, you might want to check out MAGIC. http://www.magiconline.com/
You want to go to the sourcing pavillion at the convention center. You can walk around and talk to all of the manufacturers there, and get an idea of the costs, etc. If that's not an option, you can always try to find a sourcing book from last year's convention. They give out a huge phonebook/resource book at all of the information desks on the floor breaking them down by country, etc.

Good luck!

Have you thought about thought about....Build-A-Bear.  They have nice size clothing for smaller size puppets...plus you can buy there blank shirts in white and you can print out designs to iron on them if you want to personalize the shirts more...ask them if they will sell them in bulk to you??

StiqPuppets