So i recently bought some antron fleece from puppet mart and i wanna cover my first head, however im a little leary due to the fact that antron has recently become a commodity.  I have a few questions....

1.  Whats the best way to go about sewing the my seams for the head? by hand or with a machine....Ive heard arguments on both side of the fence and am still undecided.

2.  is it common to have darts in the face area?  Ive been watching....ahem i mean studying a lot of antron work from the mighty jungle to sesame street(I have a 7 month old)and i can see most of the seam work whether the are hid with facial ornamentation or to the sides using hair  and ears to hide them, but i can never see the tell-tale ridge seams in the face.  How is this achieved?

3.  How close to the seam do you cut the excess material on the inside of the skin for the antron, does this affect the amount of "ridge" it will have at the seam?

4.  How is the antron actually attached to the under structure of foam for the head?  Or does it just float only being sewn in key places?

Any input would greatly be appreciated.........and any other info you have i'll take, lay it on me.......

I would suggest to obtain a copy of the videos done by Dr Puppet at the link below.

http://drpuppet.com/doctor_video_tutorial_page.html

Ditto on Matt's suggestions. Dr. Puppet videos show you detailed instructions on how to use the ladder stitch known as the Henson stitch to sew your fabric.

Billy D.

Those are a great videos for you to start! I highly recommend them 

I would love to order one, but I have dial-up, and no DVD on my computer.

Craig

I prefer machine sewing the bulk of things.  I think that as a rule the seams show less when sewn by machine and when you pick out the seams. Picking out the seams mean you use something like the end of a hand needle to pull the fibers of the Antron that have been caught in the seam to the surface.  This is done also with fake fur and actually is easier sometimes to "see".  Fake fur is cheap so you can get a small piece and give it a try if you like.

Darts are common on a puppet head and the answer to making them invisible is above.

I make most of my seam allowances about the width of the pressure foot on the machine. I don't normally cut them back.  You do sometimes have to clip them on a curve, just like you do when you make cloths, in order to get things to lay right.

Some people do glue the Antron to the foam with spray adhesive but I normally just let it float.

shawn you are a encyclopedia puppetta.  Thanks for the pointers.....ill think i'll forgo the tuturial and just jump into this....so if anyone has tips or inside to working with antron let me know...

I would love to order one, but I have dial-up, and no DVD on my computer.

Craig

I'm not for sure but I believe (Jay) Dr.Puppet can put them on a data CD for you. It plays in Windows Media.

Billy D.

For anyone looking for basic theory of fleecing i found this great tutorial over at Project puppet....If you had questions similar to mine this will answer most of em......

          http://www.projectpuppet.com/Page.bok?template=puppet-facial-features-tutorial

What ever happened to jay putting them on dvd's?  I thought I remembered him talking about that.