Hi everyone. My name is Don Zimmerman. I was born in Gloversville New York but have been living in NC since 1963 when I joined the USMC and was stationed at the naval air base at Cherry Pt. NC. I was married to my still beautiful wife Dawn in 1965 and was sent to Viet Nam the same month. I was saved in a little PH Church on Easter Sunday 1970 and have been preaching ever since. I now reside in Beaufort, NC. I have 4 boys 2 of which have gone on to be with the Lord in the past 3 years. I have 3 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. I am new at this puppet making thing. I am a pastor of a small church in Alliance NC and decided to start a puppet ministry which I have had in a church I served in Henderson NC but buying puppets was just to much for me to handle so I decided to start making my own. I have made 1 girl puppet (Francis) and am in the process of making a boy puppet (Frankie). I also will be making a few more as I need them. I would appreciate any advice I can get from some of the more experienced and I would appreciate any patterns that you think I might like or need. I am happy for the opportunity to be able to be a part of this site.

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff Don!

Thank you very much Shawn.

Hi Don, welcome. Good to have a pastor on board

Thank you so much.

This site has great puppet building information that will help you be successful quicker.
What is your target audience age? Have you a puppet stage? What kind of characters are you envisioning? Let us know how we can help you.

Thank you Snail for your reply. We want to minister to children of all ages, we don't have a stage as yet as I am in the process of building the puppets. I already have 2, a female and male puppet, I will probably make some more characters as we need them. Right now I am looking for the least expensive antron fleece which so far has been to me anyway, outrageous per yard when most other fleece is going for less than $10.00 a yard and some 1 sided fleece is even less than 3 dollars a yard so If anyone knows where I could get the puppet fleece for a fair price I would greatly appreciate it. God bless.

Antron fleece (puppet fleece) is always going to be expensive because it is no longer made in mass. There is only one small independent mill that makes it now and they only do it ever so often for the puppet community. That being said there is absolutely no reason you can not use regular fleece.  In fact many puppet builders do use the mass market fleece you can find in large chain stores.

 Quite right Shawn. Regular fleece is all we can get in this country anyway, and even then, there are varying qualities; The national product being the cheapest obviously, and also sadly the least quality.  But it all works. There is no hard rule. It's just the fluffier it is , the more it hides the seams. Even a short fiber fur fabric goes well. You might notice that a lot of fluffy toys made in China are cheap fur fabrics rather than fleece. We also use sweat suit material which is not that fluffy, but we got given a heap of off cuts from a factory,free, so it works for us. What makes a difference in the professional look is the sewing. Even seams, and as little crumpling of material as possible, unless intended is good. Then any seam that is seen, hopefully becomes part of the design and look.

Thank you very much for the info Shawn. As a matter of fact I saw an old thread (2005) somewhere where they were discontinuing the antron fleece because they couldn't get the right kind of thread. Then I keep seeing some that are selling it and I am wondering where in the world they are getting it. Now I know. Thank you so much for the info.  pagestep007. My first puppet is made of a blue sweatshirt which scared my little great-granddaughter to death. It turned out alright. Then I got some I thought was fleece turns out it was a felt material. I made the female puppet out of it and it looks alright too. I bought some double sided fleece and made my male puppet out of it but trying to get it over the foam was a nightmare. I am looking into some 1 sided fleece from etsy.com for 2.95 a yard. The only problem is getting the flesh tone color. I am familiar with sewing because I worked in a garment factory for over 30 years as a sewing machine mechanic and did a lot of sewing too but I didn't do a lot of hand sewing. If anyone can tell me the best technique I would be eternally grateful. All this info had greatly helped me. Thanks. God bless.