Hello to you all,

I am right now working on my very first puppet to sell and I was thinking of maybe adding a linning inside the puppet (piece of cloth that protects the foam from the sweat of the puppeteer), not sure if it is the correct word or if it is spelled correctly (if not sorry). But I was wondering: how do I proceed? Do it put it inside before I put my fleece on my puppet? How do it keep it in the puppet? Do I glue it, sew it? How do I proceed?

A little help would be more than appreciated.

I can check into some stuff a Friend of mine uses for the inside lining on clothes she makes. This lining would iron onto the foam on the inside of the puppet, so you would need to put it on first. I'll let you know. Does anyone else know what I am talking about?

Should it really depends on how you are building the puppet. I have made puppets with the liner glued to the foam head and the lining runs inside the fleeced body attaching it to the bottom of the body.
I have also machine stitched it to the base of my body fleece and pulled it inside covering the foam and hot glued it in place...I have even machine stitched it directly into the foam.

Billy D.

A lining is not going to really protect the foam from the puppeteers sweat. The sweat well soak into the lining and then into the foam.   Why add another layer that well keep the puppeteers arm from breathing, thus adding more sweat.

Now that being said, Daryl uses a tube of fabric inside of his puppets that is attached to the neck then runs down to the bottom of the puppets body.  In the bottom is plastic tubing or boning that keeps the shape at the bottom round so that it is easy to slip the hand into. You can even attach a ring to this at the bottom so you can hang your puppet upside down during performance.  I do this as a rule when building hand in mouth puppet also but the "lineing" is not really against the foam.  You can find this demonstrated on Daryl's BlogTV account. http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/736892/buZEY2NGaeXGbeZFZP

I never stop learning something new here. Out of all the puppet books, video's, and such, the lesson's learned here surpass them all. Thanks again Shawn and Billy.

I like to put a lining in the puppet.  Not because it will absorb sweat but because it is easier to slide the hand over fabric than it is over foam (especially in a tight fitting puppet) and because I feel it gives the puppet a more finished look.  I generally attach the lining directly to the head and pass it through the neck and body and secure it to the bottom of the body.

Awesome, thanks guys. You have answered my question perfectly, as always. I basically wanted to do a more finishing look to my puppet. Well even if I am just starting, I am trying to plan a few steps ahead. Since this is the first puppet that I am making that I will sell, I wanted to make a more finished puppet for my client.
One question, what kind of material is best for the job? Are some better than others for the lining?

I would add the lining Should although Shawn has his point on that the lining soaks up the sweat. However, it adds a MUCH more finished and less "exposed" look to the puppet. Making it look much cleaner. Then, you can also add the neck sleeve Shawn mentioned. That's what I'm doing with my current sheep puppets.

And the material I've often seen used it spandex. I found this really great knit polyester like material at the fabric store which I'm using which works great and a friend of mine also uses a similar material. As for which is better, I'm not too sure yet since this is my first time doing it!

And the material I've often seen used it spandex. I found this really great knit polyester like material at the fabric store which I'm using which works great and a friend of mine also uses a similar material. As for which is better, I'm not too sure yet since this is my first time doing it!

Ah, thanks for your suggestion. I was thinking in that way as well, I just wanted to have a second opinion as this is my first time doing it as well.

No problem!
And yeah, always good to double check ;D