CRAFT: How to make Finger Puppets

Felt puppets from Emma Hardy's book Sewing for Children are as easy or complicated as you want to make them and a good way to get the kids involved.

Create your own farmyard with these felt finger puppets. Use our downloadable templates and sew pigs, horses, chickens, sheep, cows and ducks. Or use your imagination and add your own features to the basic puppet shape to make a host of different characters. Go really wild with a set of jungle animals or design your own aliens and monsters. The possibilities are endless!

You will need:
🐷 Paper and pencil, to make the pattern pieces
🐷 Scissors
🐷 Felt in different colours
🐷 Pins
🐷 Pinking shears
🐷 Needle and thread

How to make:
1. CLICK HERE to download the template. Cut out a paper pattern for the main body of the puppets you wish to make. Fold a piece of felt into two, giving you two body shapes, and pin the pattern onto it. Cut out the shapes with scissors, but use pinking shears for the base of the sheep to give it a jagged edge. Remove the pins and patterns.

2. Cut out any additional paper shapes, such as a beak or mane, from the templates. If you are making a sheep, use pinking shears to cut out the face. You can either pin pieces onto felt or draw around them if that is easier. Cut a length of thread and tie a knot at one end. Thread the needle and use small stitches to sew the beak onto the chicken, the bill and feet onto the duck, patches on the cow and the mane onto the horse. Finish with a knot at the back of the felt. Sew noses onto the cow, pig and horse, and a face onto the sheep.

3. To sew eyes onto your animals, stitch French knots (CLICK HERE for sewing instructions). Start at the back of the felt with a knot and finish with a knot. For the sheep, sew the eyes onto the face piece. Use French knots as well to sew nostrils onto the noses of the horse, pig, and cow, and onto the face piece of the sheep.

4. For the horse, cow or sheep, position the ears on the underside of the front of the puppet (the bit with the face on). Do the same for the chicken's comb (the red bit!). Pin the front of the puppet to the back piece of felt, making sure the ears (or comb) are in place. Working from the back, sew a running stitch (click here for sewing instructions) around the puppet but not across the bottom. Finish with a knot at the back and trim the thread. Remove the pins. For the pig, sew on its ears with small stitches, starting and finishing with a knot at the back