I started fabricating today     I had to put off fabrication for a couple of days because some of my children have been getting sick.   Being a father trumps making puppets.

The main color for Joshua is going to be dark green alpine fleece.  His wings will be covered with a shimmery gold sheer that I hoping will make him look very june bug like.

I started with the head using the pattern I made earlier this week.  I doubled the fleece with the side I want on the outside on the inside, pined the pattern to it and cut out the  fabric for the head.  This gave me two mirror image pieces.  Next I pinned the tucks shut and sewed them closed.  Then I pinned the left and right sides of the head together and sewed them together.  And would you believe it the pattern was right and the fabric fit perfectly over the head.  I love it.

The next step for the head is lining the mouth.  When you use a foam palate, as I have, it is important to remember that the surface of the inside of the palate gets smaller as you close the mouth.  This means that the pattern you used for the foam is too big for the fabric that will cover it.  I made a second set of patterns for the mouth and trimmed off pieces of the new pattern until both the top and the bottom fit properly.  I then used these new patterns to cut the fabric palate leaving some extra fabric for a seam allowance.  Around the outside edge of this fabric palate I then sewed a strip of fabric roughly two inches wide that will be for the inside of the lips.  Once the fabric for the palate is assembled I glued it to the bottom and top of the mouth. I did not glue the fabric to the inside of the lips because I hand stitched the mouth fabric to the head.  Glue really gums up a needle and makes it hard to sew.  I had purposely made the fabric inside and outside of the mouth was too big so not I trimmed it to fit in preparation for hand sewing the lips together (Yes, I know insects don't have lips.)

The stitch I used for hand stitching is called the ladder stitch.  Right now you can find a good discription of this stitch on http://projectpuppet.com/blog/

I made sure when I was cutting the fabric for the head the it extend into the neck.  Its easier than adding fabric later and looks better.

Next I covered the body tube with fabric.  I used the drapping method (I'm learning Shawn)  I described in making the pattern for the head.  This time, however, I did not make a pattern.  I just fussed with the fabric until I was happy.

Lots left to do:  Install the lining, cover the wings and back, attach and paint the eyes, make and attach the antennas, cover and attach the arms and who knows what other odds and ends.

I dont know if this helps, because it looks like you have it all well under control and looking great but:
PLAstic plant hangers work really well for certain types of antanae.   If you were to buuy a hanging plant, it often comes in a plastic pot, with three long pieces with hooks at the end. THis is the piece oyu use, and just cut off the hook.

Hey thanks puck. 

I hadn't given the actual construction of the antennas much thought.  Have to take a look at the plant hangers.  June bugs have a multi-pronged antenna.  It's not a single protrusion so It will take some planning to make them look right.  Well its something I have to figure out.  Right now I'm working on the back of the insect.  Should be done soon and I post pictures.

I've used the plastic from weed wackers for antennae when I've made bugs. It comes in a variety of colors and sizes and some even glows under blacklight, which is a plus.

Today I covered the three back segments: two wings and the thorax.  To get the color and shine I was looking for I overlaid the dark green fleece with a metalic looking sheer.  I'm fairly happy with the over all affect.

When I covered the thorax I used the foam as a pattern for the fabric and cut out two  pieces of fleece: one with a seam allowance and one without.  I then took the piece with the seam allowance and pinned a piece of the metalic sheer to it and sewed around the outside edge of the fabric sewing both pieces together.  I then pinned the thorax fabric to the foam, the metalic&fleece fabric on the outside and the fleece only fabric on the inside.  These I then hand sewed together using a ladder stitch.

With the wings I realized that I could do the job much faster by folding the fleece and sandwiching a piece of the metalic fabric in between.  Then I traced the wing onto the fabric, pinned all three pieces together, took this to my sewing machine and sewed it all together, leaving the bottom of the wing open.  This I cut the wing out, turned it rightside out with the metalic fabric on top, inserted the foam and hand sewed the bottom shut.  This took a lot less time.

Next I plan to fabricate the arms.  It's so fun seeing him come together.

Weed wacker line that glows, who would have thought?

Got to work on Joshua this evening and was able to get guite a bit done.

First I cut out and glued in the throat.  This was a simple cut out of dark geen fleece glued into the mouth.   I also made a tongue.  For this I simply drew the outline on a piece of green fleece doubled it in half and sewed the two sides together on the outline I had drawn.  I left a hole in the sides so I could turn it right side out, sewed up the hold and there was the tongue.

The second thing I did was install the eyes.  I decided to use ping pong balls for eyes.  First I cut one ball in half and used the halves to determine the best location for the eyes once that was decided I traced the location of each eye and cut out the fabric and foam.  I found it easiest to cut the fabric first.  Then I used contact cement to secure the fabric to the foam around where the eye would be then I cut the foam away.  All that was left was to apply contact cement to the eyes and the inside of the eye sockets and to carefully put the eyes in place.

The third part was the arms.  I took the arms that I had made and traced them onto a piece of fleece.  This I doubled up and pinned together.  Then I sewed around the arms and hands leaving a gap at the wrist to insert the foam.  It takes a some effort to get the arms in the fabric.  I've found that its easier if you insert it while you are turning the fabric right side out.  Because the hands have wire in them they are easier to push into the fabric.

After that I sewed the arms to the body.

Fourthly I sewed the wings and thorax together using a ladder stitch.  Once they were together I then pinned them to the body tube and sewed them in place.

My wife says that right now he looks more like a turtle than a june bug.  I'm hoping that once I've added the legs and the antennas he will lose the turtle look.  Right now I'm trying not to get to worried about it.  He is looking alot like the drawing I started with.

I think he is coming along just fine. Please remind him that he is beginning to look closely related to the rose beetle and if I by mistake find him eating my roses this spring................. SQWISH , SPLAT !!!!!

great job and I can't Thank you enough for sharing.

Billy D.

Billy, Junebugs are beetles.  Part of the Scarab family actually.  Though they are not dung beetles like the famous scarabs from egypt.  Junebugs are more notorious for eating fruit that farmers would rather they left alone.

Well, Joshua lost some of his turtle look today.  I made and installed the antenna.  June bugs have some unusual antenna so I've included a picture of an actual june bug so that those who don't know what their antenna look like can understand why I made Joshua's look the way I did.

I used some electric fence wire to made the skeleton for the antenna.  These I covered with foam using the same technique I used for the hands.  Once that was done I traced each section of the antenna onto fleece and covered it individually.  Once the three "prongs" of the antenna were covered I covered the shaft and then hand stitched all the fabric together.

When both antenna were complete it was time to attatch them to the head.  I don't mind saying that I am very thankful for the discussion some of you were having on attaching rabbit ears.  The advice you gave was valuable to me as I installed the antennas.  I used two layers of 6mm craft foam to reinforce the head, pushed the wire through the head and reinforcing, and bent the wire to hold the antenna secure.  After this I stitched the fabric of the antenna to the head fabric and I am very satisfied with the stability of the antennas.  It was necessary to do some tweeking to the foam of the head to make sure that the antenna created as little distortion fo the head as possible.

I did one last thing today, and that was to sew an extension to the neck and then attatch the neck to the body of the puppet.  I'm not sure where I read it but I read that if you want a freely moving neck you need to attach it as low on the puppet's body as possible.  In Joshua's case I attached it at the very bottom.  Now his head moves pretty freely.

Well I have the legs to make and attatch, I still need to paint the eyes, And I'm thinks about hand stitching some exo-skeleton details on to the abdomin and wings.

I forgot to mention that I gave Joshua eyelids today.  Simple task.  Turned the leading edge of the lid using contact cement.  Then I pinned the lid in place and stitched it to the head with a ladded stitch.  I did not glue the lide to the eye.  I tried to at first but contact cement is a pain to sew through so I just stitched the lid in place and it workd fine.  If I thing the lid is slipping I may sneek some glue in latter.