That worked out pretty well! Looks great with the costume.

OOTBP - The Elvis head is fantastic!! What a great idea for a costume, great detail as well. It reminds me of the movie Bubba Ho-Tep where Bruce Campell plays Elvis in a retirement home, that is FUN FUN! :D

agreed! excellent job!

They did a good job on the costume. It's always so fun to see what everyone does with our products.

Julie

I'm always looking for quality ways to make "finished" mouths/mouthplates on a custom build.  Julie, how did you finish yours? Since I'm sure you are not using a pattern, did you sew in the mouth fabric, after wrapping the head with the "skin"?
Both of your puppets look great, Guys!  :D
Sara

Sara,
   The fabric is glued to the mouthplate.  We make the inside structure of he plate: thumb tube, hand strap..then glue velvet to the throat. We use velvet because it doesn't get as fuzzy with the blacklight fabric. Then for custom faces I use the method of patterning that I showed in the Opossum build in my gallery.  Usually for the lower jaw and front of face I start by gluing the center lip area working my way around with the hot glue and fabric stopping just before the hinge area of the jaw. Extend the fabric to the middle of the hinge for both the top and bottom jaw.  That way you can hand sew the corners of the mouth.  The most important thing I have found is not running the stretch of the fabric parallel to the mouth.  Then I dart and hand sew the fabric in the least conspicuous places.

Hope this helps. Julie 

Whether you glue or hand sew your skin covering into the mouth plate, I think the secret is patience. Go slowly with both. With gluing us small amounts of glue so you don't get large globs or so it does not ooze out under the fabric. With hand stitching smaller stitches as uniform as you can get them are best.  In stead of glue gun I often use fabric glues (FabriTac) in areas like this if I am not in a hurry. I seem to be able to control it better. The thing is you have to hold or secure the area you are gluing till it dries. You can sometimes use cloths pins to do this or I often use straight pins.  Just make sure you take them out before you use the puppet.

Good advice from both of you...thanks.  ;-)
The times I've tried hand sewing in the mouth fabric on a custom build, I've had a hard time making the seam invisible.  Even though the stitches were small, it seemed to pull on the mouth fabric, and show a lot more. 
Also, I thought that it HAD to be hand stitched in, for it to be professional....maybe not?
Thanks!
Sara

Professional is not about using a certain method or technique but in how clean looking and well built something is.  Two people can use the same products and methods but if one rushes through things their end result may not be as professional looking. Let's say they both sew on a button to the puppet as an eye but one does it with one stitch and the other with ten.  The button with ten stitches is going to last longer then the one with one stitch.

So true :D