I have made a handfull of puppets just for my kids, neighbors, etc. So far I have just been stuffing the heads with fiberfill. Someday, when the budget allows, I hope to make a real foam puppet. Till that day comes, probably in January, I will continue to stuff their little heads. How do you keep the stuffing in? The stuffing doesn't fall out or anything but i hate to give a kid a puppet they can just pull the stuffing out of. I considered making  like a pantyhose bag to put the stuffing in, Anyone still stuffing heads with any suggestions? Laugh if you must, I know it is  a dumb question. I think i'll make the children eat noodles all week so I can save up seven dollars and buy a cheap piece of foam at WalMart.

HaHa, maybe not noodles, but Walmart has the little mac and cheeses for .98!!!

And no question is a dumb question, but I will say, foam may make your life of building a WHOLE lot easier....

Now when do we see some pictures???

I put three pictures in the gallery.  This is just something we have been doing for fun this summer, really just the last couple of weeks. It is so fun watching the kids give each one a personality. I will put up some  more pictures later today hopefully. It's intimidating seeing the things you guys have made, but it's addictive, you want each puppet to be better than the last. I know I have  alot to learn.

  Here is a fun little zombie puppet I made this weekend.

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff!  Nothing at all wrong with stuffed heads. If you want to keep it in the head you can aways make a pillow the same shape of as the upper head and stuff it. Use the upper part of your patter and simply create an oval or round piece of fabric based of your upper mouth plate. You should end up with three pieces of fabric that you can sew and stuff that fit nicely up in the head.

Love the zombie. You other creations are great also. Tell your daughter she did really good on her puppets also.

The first puppet I ever made (and still have and use) has a fiber-fill brain. In his case it's still loose, but as Shawn suggested just make a pillow that fits, and you're good to go. The smaller puppets that One Way Street sells are all fiber-fill stuffed. The only right way to make these things is the way that works for you.

welcome to Puppets and Stuff........... I agree the pillow technique is the way to go until you convert to foam.

Check thrift stores, garage sales, and such for foam.  I found 4 1" thick 24' x 24" pieces at an estate sale recently (still in the packages)and paid $1 for all of them.  You can also use one of those mattress top foam pieces in a pinch.

Thank you everyone , i will try making a head shaped pillow. I saw the foam at walmart is relatively cheap. How thin is too thin, I think what i saw was half inch thick. Is that thick enough to use?

Welcome aboard! Nice Zombie!

Ive checked out your puppets and they are all fantastic!!
the fiberfill method, as others have said is a fantastic way to go, so even when you progress onto foam, don't let go of the fiberfill way.
when i stuff a head (which i still do in some cases even though i professionally make puppets now) i sometimes create a barrier of fabric in the head, sort of like the pillow method people are talking about, but the upper pert of the head IS the sealed pillow rather than inserting one in, i found that it worked really well and made sure the fiberfill didn't come out.
in answer to your question about thickness of foam, i use more half inch than any other thickness, it is thick enough to create shape with, but thin enough to not prevent great movement, after all when you have made the foam head, you'll probably still be covering it with fabric, which is another layer adding to the thickness, which in some cases can interfere with the movement. i use the inch thick too, but mainly for bodies and areas that need a little more rigidity, or for building up facial features.
so i would buy the half inch thickness and play around with it, maybe even print out one of the free patterns on this site and see how you get on, i think billy still has some patterns in his album somewhere, or maybe support a good cause at bashful puppets by purchasing Jon's prairie dog pattern for a few dollars (if he still sells it)

Hope this helps a little,

Ben.

1/2" foam is what I use, and, I suspect, pretty standard.

I agree... great job.

Thank you all for your encouragement and comments, we are loving it here. I really appreciate the comments on Ron the zombie puppet. He was really a project the whole family contributed to, and he really should have been named Rob..Rob Zombie...now to go work on a living dead girl.

The foam at Wal Mart (in the craft/floral dept is 1" (at least it is in the ones I frequent).