That was indeed helpful!  I have been making my stitches too far apart.  I was told this was the ladder stitch so I assumed the rungs were far apart.  They are not.  Your results are wonderful!  Thanks! 

What weight and revision of antron is that?  It looks different than mine.

I love the tutorials. Keep them coming!

That is the newest antron i picked up from Georgia stage about a month ago. I still miss the original but i fear that's long gone. Its 12 ounces I always use that because i like to make a lot of detail in the faces and 14 is too thick. But 14 hides more mistakes. It is more costly though if you decide to use it. 12 forces you to be more precise which is good too!

Wow one of the admins let me know about this thread because of one of my posts.  Thank you for taking the time to post these tutorials.  It'll help me allot.

Ditto on what Billy said.  All eyes on the doctor to see what's next.  The two threads instead of one is something I haven't tried.  Quilting thread too.  That would solve my freying thread problem.  Do you use the two threads together for extra strength?

Why removeable arms? Is there an advantage?  I'm also interested in how the arms go on.  Various ways to add flexibility to the elbows and wrists as well would be nice.  I usually just stuff these areas more lightly with polyfill but if you have another ways I'd love to know.

Puppet Lady

Have you tried attaching them with teddy bear joints? I do this sometimes when I want to give them a bit more movement along with the added elbow joint. I'm curious to Jays whole technique now!

Jay I think you started something here! lol

Billy D.

The two quilting threads does keep the fraying to a minimum. It used to drive m crazy getting almost to the end of a line and snap a thread.

Removable arms...and most other parts face features and eyes too that i do are mainly for the "what not" style of character. I sometime will just make bodies with no arms or arms with no bodies if in a hurry that way can grab any body....no pun meant there...and stick on the arms and head and quickly make a new puppet. then when i have time I can finish up the rest of the character if needed.

Now as for joints there is a way to get better movement when stuffing the arm put a stitch in the joint area and go through both ends of the arm. i will show you what i mean when i do arms a bit later. As for foam arms using rogers foam in the wrist and elbow really creates more movement in those areas. If you use solid foam arms hollow out the areas where more movement is needed.

Billy I use Teddy bear (doll joints) too. i will show you when i do the arm segment cause i use them in reverse...if that makes since.

Jay you're not only a very talented puppet builder and puppeteer you're a very good teacher.  You took a process that can be confusing and made it very simple.  The head looks great.  The stitching is perfect.

Ditto on what Jon said.

Hay thanks guys but this site is full of people just as good and better than me. I ahve been meaning for years to do something like this and I guess i just needed a push!