Disclaimer: This is a free puppet plan. It is not a kit, and does not have step-by-step instructions. You need to be willing to jump in and experiment. There should be enough information to build the same puppet, but I may have missed something. Contact me if something needs clarification and I will try to respond or update the page. If you create this puppet, please send pictures!. I would love to see and post what you have created!
The idea for Duncan is not my own. I saw a really neat latex doughnut puppet for sale for $80 and thought that I could do the something similar on the cheap. Here is a gallery of the images and here is the fabric pattern. I made three foam bodies and one test fabric cover puppet in an afternoon, so this isn't all that difficult. As I get more materials, I plan to finish it off and post everything, but I think there is plenty here to get you going on a nice working puppet.
You will need to be able to sew. I learned enough in about an hour to do the job. There are some online tutorials here, but if you can get someone to show you, it will be easier. My biggest problem was learning to thread the machine. If you wanted, you could probably color the foam and not bother with the fabric body. The furniture polyurethane foam that I used wouldn't lend itself well to dying, though.
The foam body is 7" in diameter and 2" thick. It's simply carved with a utility knife. I used a dinner bowl and a glass to trace the circles. The inner doughnut hole starts at 2.5"-3" at the front and tapers to 2" at the back. It makes the puppet more 'directional' when it's moved; like it is aiming at something. I tried one that was the same front and back and it just didn't look the same.
I found that scraping the foam with the knife worked pretty good for smoothing the foam. Take off a little bit at a time and be patient. It's easier to take foam off that to add it back on.
The eyes are simply white cat's eye marbles with a permanent black marker for the pupil. I plan to create some better eyes out of sculpey once I get to the local craft store (it's an hour away). I'll post instructions. 3/15/05 Update: I have the sculpey clay. I plan to make the eyes over the next few days.
Be careful when you cut finger slits in the back. They need to be deep enough so you can manipulate the puppet, but the foam seems to tear if you get them too deep.
The fabric on this puppet is temporary. It's scraps from an old shirt - but free :). To complete the puppet, you would want to attach a black sleeve to the fabric cover (the larger circle on the back and a small black fabric tube or bag to the smaller circle on the back. Once I get a little cash, I'll post a pattern and finished pictures.
I wanted to create button holes to lace together the back of the puppet, but couldn't find the sewing machine accessory (it's somewhere in the attic). Instead, I just sewed lacing to the back. Button holes laced with elastic would work much better, I am sure.
Note that on the pdf pattern, the inside line is the seam (the line that you sew), you will need to cut darts in the seam allowance (the part of the pattern outside the seam) to ease the curves so that the seam allowance doesn't bunch up. I find it easier to cut these after the initial sewing is complete..
If you find my stuff useful, perhaps you could patronize my business? The more I make on my business, the more time and money I'll have to spend on puppet designs to share.