Monster Finger Puppet Book Tutorial

It's Day 24 of...

It's the final day of this crafty Christmas Countdown.  I hope you have enjoyed seeing the Twelve Crafts and have gained some crafty inspiration.  The projects you have seen on this 24-day series prove that you do not need a lot of resources or money to make wonderful gifts for those you love.  All of the crafts used the same red felt and red polka dot fabric.  By the way...I still have a ton left.  Maybe I will have to put it up and save it for next's year's crafty countdown.  

Tomorrow is Christmas Day and I won't be crafting or sewing.  I will be spending a relaxing, lovely day with my family--opening presents, drinking hot cider, cooking Christmas dinner, and laughing together.   Today Tim, Lydia Grace, and I will be traveling around to visit with our families.  I hope your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are filled with lovely memories surrounded by the ones you love.

Okay...back to the business at hand.  Here's the tutorial for the Felt Book with Monster Finger Puppets that I showed you on yesterday's post.

Supplies:

*Felt scraps (various colors)

*Sewing machine

*Velcro

*Basic sewing supplies (thread, pins, scissors...)

* Hot glue gun

*Fabric glue

*Craft blue that can hold beads or googly eyes

*Googly eyes

*Paper scraps and pencil

 *One sheet of computer paper (8 1/2 in. by 11 in.)

Directions:

1. Draw and cut out a template that looks like the one shown below.  Use the template to cut out two layers of felt.

2. Using a 1/4 in. seam allowance, sew around the felt leaving the bottom end open.

3. Once you are done sewing the pieces together, use your pinking shears to cut around the seam.  You can turn the finger puppets inside out or leave them with the zig zag cut showing.

4. Use felt scraps and googly eyes to decorate your finger puppet monsters.  (Tip: A hole punch can be used to make small circles of felt.  You could also use buttons, pom poms, or other small items to decorate your monsters.)  I used a craft glue to adhere the googly eyes and a fabric glue to adhere the felt pieces.

5. Use your piece of computer paper to cut out a piece of felt measuring the same size.

6. Fold the piece of felt in half like a hamburger and use the pinking shears to cut around all of the edges except the folded side.  Use pins to hold it in place.  Using a 1/4 in. seam allowance, sew a seam right along the folded side of the felt.  This creates your book.

 7. Since these are finger puppets, I thought it would be cute to have a felt hand holding onto the puppets inside the book.  Trace your hand on a piece of paper, cut it out, and use it as a template to cut out a felt hand.

 8. In order to allow the book to still close nicely, you need to cut your hand in half and adhere each piece to the inside of the book using fabric glue.  As you can see from the pictures, I matched up the cut edges of the hand to the inside spine of the book and glued them down.  It looks a little streaky in the pictures right now, but it dries well. 

9. With a hot glue gun, adhere one side of a velcro piece to a finger and the other side to one of the felt puppets.  This will secure them to the inside of the book until little fingers are ready to play with them.

 10. Decorate the outside of the book to match your finger puppets.

 Place it into a little pair of hands and watch imaginations come to life.