its been awhile since ive built a puppet and i was wondering when you build the hands which way do you do the grain of the fabric? thanks guys your help would mean a lot to me!

I don't know about the grain but I put the greatest stretch across the width like across the knuckles. Don't know if that is right or not but it works for me.

Yes, across the width of the fingers and arm. If you run the stretch with the length then they will stretch out when you stuff them and most likely be skinner than you want them.

Julie

...and keeping that in mind, if you are making a pattern for something like arms or legs you should take that into account and know that the arm or leg would end up being bigger around.  Good rule of thumb to think about when pattering out anything.

Good point Shawn.

Julie

Or if you have one way stretch fabric you can cut your pieces across the grain and get pretty much a two way stretch if you need it.