Hi this project wont be started until after April but i could sure use some of this help beofre i start as i don't know where to start.

I am going to be using my puppet to start a weekly webcast show beuase i cant film myself every week becuase i dont wear many clothes because im big,

So im Dave and th puppet is caled Dave so we and rthe show will be alled Big Dave and Little Dave.

Now heres where i need help

1. I want to make him so i an just make the naked body so i can change his clothes. Steve mentioned me measuring him for real toddler clothes, heres the question he's supposed to be about 8 years old how big wwould a puppet have to be for that?

2. I want to make a moving mouth puppet, but i want him to have legs can somebody direct me to something that teaches you that, plus it would be nice if his hands couldhold stuff is that possible.

Thats it really, i need to design him so when i do ill post it here.

Thanks for the help and if this doesn't belong here can somebody move it please.

I'd estimate the full puppet to be approximately 3 ft tall if you're doing that age. That's not too bad of a size since the puppet I use would be that tall or taller if I used legs on him. I'd suggest get a child small shirt.

Legs are very simple to make. If he's going to always wear pants for example, you can just fill the pants with polyfoam. If he has feet too, you could buy socks and attach them to the inside of the pants and fill them too.

i just want to know but is there a way to move his hands and mouth>

Yeah. Just make the puppet to have an opening mouth. And moving hands are possible using more than one method. You can use rods, make glove hands if the puppet is large enough, or if you're ambitious enough you could have hands that move using string/wire.

Here's the puppet I use for Blogtv. He has a leather mouth plate and thumb pouch for mouth movement. He wears a child small shirt and has glove hands. His head is just a little bit smaller than mine.

You can absolutely move his mouth and hands/feet.

It's just a matter of planning for it from the initial design and taking the time to do it right. There's a lot of work involved. The mouth you will need to make a mouthplate. You can make a rigid or flexible mouth depending on how much expression / control you want to have over it.

The hands you could sew in velcro to the palms and do it that was for the illusion of holding things. You can also make a cardstock palm and a-wire inside the fingers so it can have the appearance of it gripping the objects. I have some characters with the wire in the hands and they can grip and hold items on their own assuming they are light.

Doll joints for shoulders can help you give the character a posable look, and you can put a-wire into the arms as well if you want it to hold a pose. Keep in mind if you wire the arms they'll lose any flexibility (unless you really spend the time on it and loop the ends, make rings for joints, etc.. lots of work there)..

Remember, the options are endless. Whatever you can dream up in your head can be done in a puppet. It's just that some things will take a lot of hard work, planning, and effort. But it's all doable.

ok i just nned to learn how to do that now thank you

Dave if you want to learn the basics (beyond reading through the pages and pages of content here on P&S that can help you out), consider the Foam Book by Grey Seal Puppets. Both in it's bound and DVD format.

When I first started out a few years ago that was the first book I picked up and it helped me be able to conceptualize what I'm going to build, and realize what materials/supplies will get me to the point of completing those tasks.

There are many sources around this board and the internet which can tell you how to make a puppet.
Here's a place to start with:
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_3283_make-puppets.html

I don't have the time to look them up right now (we really need to create a list on a separate page)  but there are several members here that have tutorials and such you can check out.  Na, StiqPuppets, Dr. Puppet, Project Puppet and Billy.  I know I am missing some folks so please fill in the caps.   Look for their post or look up their profiles in the Membership and they should all have links to their sites.