I've been lurking here for a while and I've learned a lot from reading and watching people's video tutorials. I just finished the head of my first puppet and would like a little critique. I know it needs work and I learned a lot from the mistakes I made. Be brutal.

Some areas I know I need to work on are: Lining things up. The seam on the fleece is all over the place. The eyes and other features are misaligned because they all follow the wonky seam. I need to glue the lip area before I attach the mouth plate. I messed up his right cheek because I didn't have room to curl the fabric around the lip because the mouthplate was in the way. I need to work on eye focus. I also realize it's a bit boring as a character but its just a prototype to see if I could even build one.



Now for the question. I want to make the eyes interchangeable. I tried velcro and magnets. Neither pulled the eyes against the fabric tight enough and left a big gap. Has anyone found a good way to make easily swappable eyes or other features? I thought about gluing a bolt to the eye and attaching it with a nut inside the head. This is easy when it's just a head but may be a pain when it's a full puppet with a body. I'm also a bit concerned about the weight of a bolt. I suspect it might make the eyes flap around.

Hello! tell you that I love your first puppet Looks like a snake clueless, maybe. Eyes only improve both iris doing more equal, or perhaps with buttons glued a piece of felt.

I can not help with interchangeable parts because I've never done anything like that. It seems to me a very funny. nose may have been two small donuts or polimerclay sculpey.

reminds me of Cecile from Cecile and Beanie.  If you can attach a nose similar to the way you did the eye sockets and then put in your nostrils that would make it more 3 dimensional.

Yeah the irises were a bit sloppy. My plan is to use stickers that I'm printing from my computer. I just wanted to see if I could get the placement right. Thanks for the reply!

reminds me of Cecile from Cecile and Beanie.  If you can attach a nose similar to the way you did the eye sockets and then put in your nostrils that would make it more 3 dimensional.

He's supposed to be an alien. You know like little green men. I may end up using pieces of black felt. Without clothes or a body he does look like a snake or a sea serpent.

What about dolls' joints (plastic) or using a modified eye for teddy bears? You know, the ones that have a screw on the back with a plastic nut...

I think it's pretty good for your first puppet.

Na's idea of using a doll joint might work for you since they are plastic they would be light. The only thing is the "bolt" that comes with them are snap on and thus meant not to be removed or changed out.  Would need to find an alternative for that.

Another option would be to use the magnets or Velcro idea but in order to get it to fit flush to the head you would want to cut a hole the size of the eye in the foam then sew around the inside of that hole once you have the "skin" one. Put a piece of round or square fabric behind on the inside of the head so you are sewing two pieces of fabric together. Then clue the edges of that inner fabric to the inside of the foam.  Now you should have an intention that the eye can set into and the Velcro or magnet may be fine.  This is just an idea of the top of my head not something I've done before, at least for this that is.  Used the concept though for other things I wanted to set flush or intent a bit and it works.

Don't be too hard on your self.  You did pretty good.  Stitch lines get better as you do more. Pinning material before you sew helps keep things even and lined up. Use the width of your pressure foot on your machine or the measure markings if you have them to make sure your seam allowance is consistence. If you don't have marks on your sewing machine you can use a piece of tape on the bed to make a line you use as a guide. I do that a lot on my machine with marks when I need a wider seam allowance then normal.  If you are sewing by hand and don't have the marks or pressure foot option then keep a ruler close and you can check from time to time that your stitch line is good.  If you really want to be picky you can get marker pins for fabric that dissapear after a day or two. Use that to draw your stitch line if you want then follow that. In time with practice it'll be second nature and easy to keep a clean line.

Na's idea of using a doll joint might work for you since they are plastic they would be light. The only thing is the "bolt" that comes with them are snap on and thus meant not to be removed or changed out.  Would need to find an alternative for that.

Ah good point - didn't think that one through properly, did I?

You could go to any hardware store and grab some plastic screws/bolts like they use on toilet seats, thay come in different lengths and would be just as good as a doll joint with a washer attached...