I pin, pin, pin, about every 1/4 inch and sew from the corner of the mouth around to the other corner. I use small stitches and go slowly, not sewing over the pins but pulling them out just before the needle gets there.  My first pin is the middle of the front and then the corners of the mouth and then fill in the pins around pulling and stretching to fit.  Then I hot glue the mouth plate inside.  I got a glue gun with a spread out tip that makes thinner,wider glue that is not so thick that it could seep thru the fabric. Or sometimes I try to spread glue out with stiff piece of plastic like credit card, but you have to work fast before it cools.  It helps if the inside fabric and face fabric have about the same percent stretch too.

You guys(girls too)are wonderful. I plan on building all weekend using these tips. I will post the results when completed. Thanks again!!

He he, I'm in the small group who do not like hot glue.   I sew wherever possible. I did a tutorial on putting a generic puppet  together its on the mouth  bit is from around  2:30 to 7 mins, and then gluing the cloth to the mouth card at about 20 mins.  In short, cut the mouth cloth, the same size as the mouth plate card, sew the cloth into the  mouth hole in the face, and that will give you the lip with the seam inside the mouth when you glue the cloth to the card.

Thank you, Pagestep! This video tutorial makes my next step much less worrying. It is, however, pretty embarrassing that I have been working for days and still have only a naked foam head while you just made a complete puppet in 30 minutes.

I think sewing the fleece skin to the fabric inside the mouth is much less intimidating than glue, more opportunity to fix any potential mistakes, and I like the look of the lip.

ha ha  , no problems. You are doing well. My first puppet took me 12 prototypes to work out a pattern for. And it usually takes a couple of hours, start to finish, on a generic like in the video. I had the advantage of having everything cut out beforehand, and glue dries really fast when you an turn the camera off. Keep at it, you  will be fine.

The stretch of the fabric has caused my mouths to be crooked. It takes practice gluing or stitching to get it straight. Good advice everyone.

Wait, are you in Vegas? If you are, that's AMAZING because there are hardly any puppet folks here. I have a shop where you can totally stop by for help if you need it. I am there on Saturdays. You can stop in any time, but during the week my mom Cindy is running the joint. While she is lovely, her specialty is quilting so any puppet questions might make her go cross-eyed.

http://www.dewey-street.com

-Laurie

Laurie,
Now I see why you started dyeing Antron.   Love the term Puppet Pelts!

Haha thanks! I was actually pretty stoked that the domain wasn't taken.

Loved the video pagestep007, and of course I took advantage of the printscreen button LOL. Do you think that stuffing the head cap as you did will work on project puppet patterns also?  Again I LOVED THE VIDEO.