Feel free to share your sewing tips here.

Found this thought I should share...........sewing solutions.org


http://www.sewing.org/html/guidelines.html

Ooo! Here's one: wax your thread when you're hand sewing to prevent tangled threads. You'll save yourself a bunch of frustration and improve your seams.

Here's a little video:

Yup I very often wax my thread for hand sewing. It does help!

As someone that's looking into making a puppet for the first time is a sewing machine or hand sewing more useful?

I'd say both, but if you can't afford or don't have access to a machine, work on perfecting your hand sewing skills.

Julie

A sewing machine can give  you a neater seam and speed up the process but as Julie mentioned if you can't afford one or don't have one you can create a puppet using hand sewing. You need to practice keeping the stitches even in length and and tension.

I actually can't make puppets on a machine. I know how to sew and have used the machine for years, but for some reason, my puppets come out way better when they are hand sewn. I think because it is slower so there is more attention to details. I also have a hard time of going around little fingers and toes on the machine. They end up all misshapen.

However, I do make their clothes on the machine.  That saves on some time.

This is a handy reference for handing stitching...

I love the hairy legged guy trying to sew with his pants off, made me laugh. I love a man that is secure enough to sew. That reminded me of when I was a young girl I still have my "Make and Do Book" that showed sewing different stitches with yarn and big needle to learn the stitches.  Yarn might work as a good visual to help newbies "see" the stitches better in videos.