Angel:
Here's MaryJane with her mouth closed:
Some wrinkles.  I also noticed that the bottom of her mouth is not symmetrical.  Oops. 
I hope you post a picture Angel.  I'm thinking that maybe the pattern for the fleece should be slightly smaller to account for stretch.  When I glued the fleece into the mouth I got some excess wrinkling on the lower lip which luckily is hard to see.  I did not glue the fleece to the foam in any place but the mouth interior.  The rest of the fleece just lays on top of the foam.  Next time I make this puppet pattern, I plan to cut the fleece shorter in the direction of the fleece's stretch before I sew so I will have better fit into the mouth.

Puppetlady you did a snap up job because the wrinkles look natural and does not take away from the puppet at all.

Thanks for sharing your picture with us.

Daryl H

YES! OK that's how the corners of the mouth looks on my puppet.  I was trying to get it really smooth and it was so challenging.  I tried gluing the fabric to the head like Jay did in his video tutorial, not good.  When I tried to remove the fleece I completely tore holes on the foam, not just one head but three of them. I made a new head last night, call me determined, but I refuse to settle at least not right now.  Once I get it covered I'll post a picture.   MaryJane is so adoreable, she looks like she's saying " Oh mom, I really didn't do it."  I love her over bite, she looks like a 5 year old. You did a great job on her and thank you soo much for posting the picture.  I like bare foam showing, but I'm a big fan of covering my puppets with some sort of fabric.  Puppetlady you're such an inspiration.  Thanks bunches!

Angel

Angel:
I had even more wrinkles on my second puppet.  Luckily she's an old woman so it suits her.  Her mouth plate is a more flexible one which allows for more expression but she is so difficult to operate that she came back to the shop for a handgrip.  This gave me a chance to photograph her.  The lady who operates her just loves her, I think she's ugly.  For the sake of education, I took a picture.  Her mouth is sewn in (see photo) instead of glued.  The closed mouth  shows the wrinkles.  The mouthplate is made of craft foam layers and assembled in the manner shown in the you tube video.  Mary Jane on the other hand has a traditional two piece mouth plate made of sintra.  It would correspond to the mouthplate pattern pieces that have hollow centers, but the sintra is cut without the hollow centers and the sintra pieces are joined with tape like in a traditional mouthplate.  A sturdy handgrip is attached to the top plate for better manipulation.  Hope this helps.  I'm wondering if the kind of mouthplate used (and the fabric as well) influences the appearance of the mouth opening.  Granny has lips that Mary Jane doesn't because of this mouthplate material change.

Puppetlady,now that you mention it,the first couple of heads that I covered I used regular fleece from the fabric store. The last one I used some puppet velour that I had purchased from One Way Street. The regular fleece was much thicker and I got a lot of wrinkles in the mouth corners as appose to the velour from One Way Street which is thinner, and I like it much better. The velour cost a little more than the fleece, about eight dollars a yard plus shipping. But for me it's worth it. As for the mouth plate I used foam core with finger tubes. Haven't tried anything different yet but I have not had any problems so far.  Thanks for posting the pictures I can't view them right now, hopefully I can shortly. Thanks bunches.

One more thing, when I make my finger tubes instead of having the fingers touch bare foam inside the tube, I take a piece of felt and spray glue it to the inside of the tube and fold enough over the egde of the side of foam thatis near the fold of the mouthplate. Then I make my tube and cut it to size and affix to the mouthplate and then cover the top of the tube with felt or some sort of fabric. Now no foam is showing and I don't have to worry about the tube wearing out so fast and it feels good on the fingers. Maybe some others do this but I just thought I would mention it. 

Angel

I like granny, you did a good job. I like the way her mouth gave her lips.

Angel

I've yet to try fingertubes for a handgrip.  Are they made of swimming pool noodles?

No, just regular 1/2" foam, like in the foambook. 

OK, I remember seeing that.

Oh my you all have been busy!  I made a puppet rom the pattern, but he is no way near as fantastic as puppetlady's.  Mary Jane is beautiful. 

Puppetlady,I do draw and scan patterns.  I darken them up and clean them in paintshop.


 I am so glad the originals were posted as well.  I'm sure mine had errors. 

Isaiah is doing well. We will be seeing the doctor again mid september.  We are watching and waiting again.  This time in it the metopic stuture on the front of his skull. There is a possibility it has fused and his head measuremnts at the next visit will tell us alot. Thank you Billy for keeping everyone posted.  I do disappear for weeks at a time. 

This is Scruffy. I covered him in plain polar fleece. I used the same pattern for the foam for the fleece and machine sewed it. He had eyes!  Some hard play with my 4 yr old has modified his look a bit.  I will replace them soon.