OK, this is my first puppet build and so far she's already being a learning experience! I bought the glorified sock puppet pattern from Project Puppet and am using it more as a reference than an actual pattern to do this build. I'm a fursuit builder primarily so am used to making my own patterns from scratch - having the pattern around for reference I predict is going to be a HUGE help though!!

My first build, nicknamed "Pippa" is a mongrel puppy and she is intended for sale at a charity auction in June. She's being used as a learning puppet for me to work out the process hence why she will be sold at the auction.

Concept art:


I've already had to deviate from the "plan" while making the patterns due to having a lot less ivory fur than I thought I did (I recently sold a large lot of it.. thought I had more, thought wrong!)

I had a few hours spare today so decided to make a start on the head -



The stumpy bits of foam are a base for her ears - doing a foam base and then making a full ear out of fur will give her perked up floppy ears which is the effect I'm trying to achieve with her.

I am aware she needs a lot of tweaking still but any input would be great <3 I'm going to be fiddling with the skull a lot more in the next day or so.

 That design is pretty awesome, I'd say it's coming along rather well. Keep it up

Looks good. How are you hinging the lower jaw?

Looks good. How are you hinging the lower jaw?

I tweaked the glorified sock puppet pattern to create a foam shell to work from then just added bits to it to make the head so I'm essentially using the same method only with some differences pattern wise.

Ah ok. That makes sense!

right now its a case of Im going along with "this will work!... right?" and not resorting to asking husband for advice (he was an engineer)

I think you are going to be fine with this. The only thing I can see that may be an issue is it looks like from the pictures that you may have quite a bit of foam at the hinge point of your mouth on lower jaw. It could just be the angle and fact that picture do not always show what is really going on. Remember that you are putting fabric on top of this including inside the mouth. If you get too much bulk in there then the mouth wont close all the way.  This is one reason that patterns for hand in mouth puppets are created with the mouth in the open position.

You sculpted the snout out of a slid block of foam and attached it, it looks like. Is that true? Not a bad thing but you might want to pull a pattern off of that so you can in the future do that in flat foam like the PP pattern. In fact you should be able to incorporate that right in to PP pattern extending it so you don't have an add on but a continues piece.  Make sense?  The reason I suggest this, is it will make the puppet much lighter in the long run and ever little bit you can remove from the weight is a good thing.  Think about holding her up over you head for even 15 mins and you'll understand what I mean.

Great start and I am sure she'll turn out fine in the end. Can't wait to see her completed.

thanks for the feedback! I've made a pattern of the head already in order to fur it so I'll be keeping that to one side to help with future builds - the block used on the muzzle has actually been hollowed out on the inside so isn't solid Im in the middle of sewing her face together atm so expect more pics tonight!

Looks good.

Had a feeling you knew how to pattern... that is why I did not go into detail.    Can't wait to see progress pictures!