I'm just wanting to get some feedback from everyone on the techniques you all use for this.
When fleecing a custom made puppet head, do you glue the fleece inside the mouthplate over the the mouth lining, or do you stitch it in?  What is the best way for you, and how do you do this?  Do you handstitch the fleece to the already placed mouth lining?
Any feedback will be great!
Thanks,
Sara

I'm wanting to know this too! Since most of my puppet building experience stems from the Simple Series from Project Puppet, all I am really familiar with is sewing the head fleece and mouth lining together before assembling. I tried making a fully foam based head that I custom-stitched the fleece over afterward and glued onto the mouth felt, and failed miserably. I don't know if it's my tecnique or method that went wrong. I'd love to know any tricks that makes attaching a fleece covering to a head and mouthplate easier and more professional!

~Nate

I generally glue the mouth in.................. sewing the rest of the head using the ladder stitch. Dr. Puppet has a excellent video showing how you glue the fabric to the mouth and sew the rest of the head fabric in place.

http://www.drpuppet.com/doctor_video_tutorial_page.html

Billy D.

when I tried gluing the fabric in place, it just wanted to "bunch up" inside the mouthplate and looked like crap.... even if I cut the excess, it was highly noticeable when I glued the rest down.

Here is an approach you can try.  Leave the mouth plate lining to the very last.  Cover your foam head and leave a pretty good amount you can wrap into the mouth plate. Carefully glue the fleece of the head around the inside of the mouth to the mouth plate about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch in. At the corners of the mouth you well want to cut away some of the excess.

Now make sure that your lineing is cut about a 1/2" bigger then the mouth plate.  Take a make snips around the entire outer edge about 1/2" deep. Now take and iron and press the outer edge all the way around just a bit past the snip lines creating a hem of sorts.  Now use spray glue to get the bulk of the fabric lining stuck to the mouth plate. Try to keep glue away from the outer most edge because we want to hand stitch it in once it is glued in.  HINT: Create some masking templates to help you do the spray gluing.

I sew the mouth to the head parts. I like the finished look it gives.
We have purchased puppets with glued mouths and they never look as professional as the sewn ones. 

I like to sew the head fabric to the mouth lining when I cover the inside of the mouth with fabric.  With my last few puppet I've dyed the foam read and left it uncovered.  This meant that sewing was out so I used high temperature hot glue and I am pleased with the results.

I don't try and remove excess.  For me the key to having clean looking mouth seams is to gradually ease the excess fabric so that it is evenly gathered in very small gathers all the way around the mouth.  If you're using a fabric with stretch this is much easier than with fabric with no stretch.

I'm on my third puppet.  I am trying a new style based off of the Scooter head pattern found all over the web.  I've modified the design a tad to work with the neck and body I've been designing.  It (Scooter) doesn't have any mouth assembly instructions so I'm doing a lot of trial and error.  I just found this thread, I had no idea you could just glue the fleece to the mouth assembly.  Any ways I'm down to my last few inches of gator board and it creased well fitting it into the head.  I'll have to wait until Monday to get more, or is a creased mouth board no big deal?  As a newbie the ease of gluing the mouth in place intrigues me, do pros consider glued mouths less "attractive" than a sewn mouth?

Steve

I'm not sure what pro's consider but I think as long as the seams whether glued or sewn or finished and clean looking that is what matters. They should be TV ready with no glue splotches, bumps, or crooked seams.

I agree with Billy on that....sewing gives it a clean finish but takes hours of work to make it look even and clean so many do glue it in making sure no glue shows and that the edge of the material is glued right down.  Some materials are not suggested to glue down because they show fraying as an issue.  fur and fleece are the most common used coverings on puppets and they make ideal glue down materials for the most part.

<------ check out my utube videos on making professional puppets step by step it may help you out.  Click on the link button in my profile.

Daryl H