I did a lot more pinning and sewing today. Whip stitch is the boss- works best for me for speed and durability. As you can see in the picture of the inside-out fabric, I pin all the pieces to each other before sewing. I like to do it that way so I don't have to stop to pin every couple of minutes. I've used a brown colored thread so you can see where the stitches go. This Projectpuppet.com pattern has the three body parts- head, neck and torso. It goes together really smoothly. I just love this fur- so glad I will have quite a bit more leftover to play with for other puppets and parts. So fun! Tomorrow, I will be working on the mouth plate.

Tonight, I sewed up the head pieces. Beginning with the darts on each head piece individually I pin the dart sides together.  I use a whip stitch to sew them up on the backing side. Then I pin the two halves together (fur side in) and whip stich all the way up from the neck hole to the mouth opening. I then sew up the pieces that will become the chin. Now, I get to turn it right side out to see how it looks! Yay! At this point I also like to "test out" the foam inside the head to see how everything fits so far. It looks great, so tomorrow I will turn it inside out again and continue with the body panels.

After the character sketch has been approved, it's time to choose the proper fabric. In the case of this monstery hand puppet, the furrier the better. After going to a few of my favorite online* fabric stores, I narrow it down to a couple different long pile furs.
Although the top choice is a nice long pile purple fur, I like the bottom fur better for it's wild "hairy" texture.

(*If you live in a large city- head to the fabric district! I am in the middle of Nowheresville, an hour from anywhere of significance.)