There are other glues besides hot glue. Any glue that works on fabric and plastic would do.  I like FabriTac myself.  It grabs really fast to hold your work in place.

In the case of your eyes I would more then likely use a "two punch" method.  I would take and drill three small holes in the sides of the spoon top and then each side on the upper part where the fabric goes.  Then I would cut my fabric and glue it onto the spoon across the front on the eye lash line and then loosely wrap it around the edge and glue to the back.  Glue the fabric far enough into the back of the spoon that you don't get a bunch of glue into the holes. Then I would take and actually hand stitch around the entire upper part of the lid where I wrapped the fabric around.  That is why I wouldn't stretch the fabric to tight.  You want to be able to get your needle into the edge of the fabric. Start at one side where your hole is and go trough the hole also. The holes are really overkill but I tell you what that eye is not going to come off unless the thread rots.    Small stitches and patients well keep the sewing from showing.

One alternative to stretching and gluing the fabric to the eye since the glue could effect the paint would be to first stitch the eye to the puppet through the three holes.  Then cut your eye fabric so it is the shape you want then hand stitch it on over the eye.

I should mention in all fairness that other puppeteers do not have my aversion to hot glue. Daryl uses hot glue on his puppets and has never had any problems. I might also note that he lives up north and has no air conditioning in his house.   I've had to store my puppets in the past in some very hot locations for longer periods of time.  Ever lived in Texas during the summer?  I've also seen some really sloppy use of hot glue where it shows really bad.  I guess my point is that you have to think about circumstances and location. This is also my personal opinion.  I've said this hundreds of times and I do really mean it.  "There is no wrong way just different ways."  The method I describe above may not be worth the time it takes for what you are doing.  I had mentioned in a post above that I had just "fixed" a hot glue job.  More then likely they used hot glue because of dead lines.  What took me about 40 mins to do would have taken them about 5 mins and it could be the shipper was waiting at the door to take the product to it's client.  Even I have fallen back on hot glue when under the "gun".  Pun intended.

Thanks Shawn for sharing your experience with glue gun and
the method you have used to fix the eyes ...very useful
information. Nothing will replace hand stitching to give that extra
secure feeling that your have fixed it well. I live in a place that has
only hot, hotter & hottest climate...we have never had anything called
winter!!!  Glue gun is a handy tool but I reinforce with stitching wherever
possible.



Bhanu

Well, since I don't want a reputation of making cheap puppets, and these are for God's ministry, I better do it overkill. Sure, it might add more time to the making process, but I would feel better that some new puppeteer who got the puppet in Niceraqua wasn't doing a puppet show for kids and the eyes or nose fell off. Thank you so much for the advice. I will be posting the new puppet as soon as I finish it.

I just ordered the Roly pattern from Project Puppet and the download file was a .bok file not a .PDF file. I cant open it and I need it soon. Has this happened to anyone before?

.bok is a type of book file but I think in this case that it may have been a glitch in the software they use. .bok files are also used in an e-commerce program.  I would contact them and see if they can help you out.

Shawn's right, its a compressed book file. Obvious error somewhere in the download, PP should sort that out for you, so you don't need to get the software to open it. Hope everything works out for you... quickly.

Good news, Project Puppet sent me an email for the file. Everything is OK. Nice pattern. Finished rough of it in 3 hours ( was dealing with the kids in too).

Hey everyone. I have updated the website for TGR Puppets a little. If you got time, swing by and tell me what you think. www.tgrpuppets.weebly.com

Looking good! You just have to change the 'sponsor' typo's on the 'Sponsor a Puppet' page, in the header and the body text and you're good to go. Well done!