I just came across a pair of Big Bird slippers that I am now taking a seam ripper to ~ I want the eyes and to see how to make the beak.


Of course this isn't the first time that I planned on recycling eyes...Several months ago I found this pathetic pink dog with really expressive eyes. The fur is awful, nowhere near as soft as it looks, but it is TOO pathetic - I simply can't bring myself to take a seam ripper to it. (Especially not after my dad got ahold of it and gave it personality, mournfully saying things like, "Go ahead. Cut my eyes out. I deserve it.") I still have the silly thing, but I can't even bear to look at it now (though I still think those eyes would awesome on a hound dog.)


I'd be interested in seeing other recycled puppets.

I love that you are recycling and sharing a great reminding message to us all that we can find gold in something old.  Those eyes are sooooooooooo cute on that pink dog.  You could even salvage some of that fur, too!

WAY TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You Rock!!!
Nikole

The fur is absolutely horrid, I tell ya! It was probably a carnival prize or some other cheap toy but I just can't bring myself to cut it open. Though if I could, I'd probably use the ears, nose, and forehead wrinkles (which don't show up in the picture) as a pattern as well.

I tend to keep too much thinking "Oh, that would work in a puppet some time!!" We need a whole room to keep everything that we have collected.  Between my husbands prop making - he is a propeteer extrodinaire - and my using everything else we have quite a collection of "rubbish".  I hate to think of every having to move it all!!!

Yeah, I stay on the hunt for used stuffed animals, flea markets, thrift store, friends and family homes.  I have a lot of eyes, nose and some fur that I have cut off of and out of stuff things.  I just say that they're getting some cosmetic surgery .  My family thinks I've lost my mind, but I just keep saying "my new puppet will appreciate what you're doing for it". Now if I can only get my hands on my aunts stuff St. Bernard dog...

Heeheehee...
Well the Big Bird slippers came out in one nice piece:

But I'm not touching that dog!

The dog is just fabric and filler.  Give it a new and better life by taking whats good and giving a new home.  Then again no ones made me feel that it has feelings (which by the way it does not).

Heh heh heh...I've already been called a murderer for what I did to Big Bird, I have "yellow fur on my hands."

Actually the pink dog really has been given a new life, just not the one I intended ~ he makes a great conversation piece.

I'm not even sure I could use the eyes anyway - I don't know how to take the back piece off and I don't have any others to replace it with. I will use the whole face piece with one Big Bird slipper and the other one will be taken further apart to make a pattern. I can actually get my hand in the beak, but it is a pretty tight squeeze, so I will trace it and enlarge it.

Cut the back piece off. If it is metal use tinsnips and if plastic I use a box cutter. Find new backs where stuffed animal supplies are sold.

I re do lots of animals, some for the pieces as mentioned above, others I add a mouth, sleeve,  and turn it into a puppet. I just did an awesome dog, sold it the day I finished it. I also did a monkey that is wonderful.

I probably will eventually - but since I don't even know where I might be able to find such things (The nearest Hancock Fabrics and Michael's Crafts are both about 70 miles away ~ far enough that I don't exactly know what they have) I'll wait.

Of course the pink dog is a reminder of an hour and a half of laughing with my dad, so it is really a treasure in its own pathetic way