Easter Finger Puppets Step by Step DIY & FREE Pattern
by DreamALittleBigger in Craft > Felt
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Easter Finger Puppets Step by Step DIY & FREE Pattern
Easter was one of my favorite holidays as a child. Hunting eggs. Gorging on chocolate. Gorging on boiled eggs. Spending the day with my family. Hiding eggs over and over with my sister. What's not to love? Between all of the candy and eggs that had been sitting in the garden right before consumption, I'm surprised I have no tales of Easter food poisoning. Anyway!
Because I'm an auntie, I spend my weeks leading up to Valentine's Day making a red, black and hot pink spider piñata and winter days gluing "jewels" onto a gold spray-painted backscratcher. I love crafting and I love my nephews! Holidays give me a reason to spoil those rascally boys. Okay - so I don't need a reason, but it makes me feel a little bit better about said spoiling.
These Easter finger puppets are my newest holiday gift/creation. A little bit of felt and embroidery floss and you have a great Easter gift that will promote imaginative play! Felt and floss skeins run around $0.25/each - making this a budget friendly craft! Plus, if you won't be seeing your little buddies this Easter, these easily fit inside of an Easter card preventing any hefty mail fees.
STEP 1: Cut out your printed paper pattern shapes. Still need your pattern? Get it here. Decide if you want your Easter creature to wear a cute little bow tie or hair bows and cut those out as well.
STEP 2: Using your fabric marking pen, trace your cut out pattern shapes onto your felt.
STEP 3: Cut your shapes out of the felt.
STEP 4: If using felt glue, place a small daub in the middle of your shape. Try to stay away from the edges. Felt glue dries very, very hard and getting your needle and thread through that will result in repeatedly stabbing your thumb (trust me).
STEP 5: Start tacking down your felt shapes using your needle and thread. Your embroidery floss comes with 6 strands. I choose to split the strands in half and embroider with 3 strands a go. The number of strands you use is your preference. For thicker, more pronounced stitching, use more. For daintier stitches use less.Come up through the back piece and make your first stitch. If you continue making stitches in the hole you just came out of, you'll have a pretty nice line. Don't worry about if your line or stitches are perfectly straight/spaced out. My Mimmie always told me that people aren't perfect so don't worry about perfection. I think that imperfect stitching lends itself to a more handmade/rustic look.
STEP 6: Begin attaching your other pieces with your thread and needle (and glue if you're using it). Stitch all around the shape of your creature, attach bows if you're adding them.
STEP 7: It's time to add the face! With your fabric pen, draw on the shape of the face you'd like to embroider on. If you're not comfortable embroidering the face, you can always use a permanent fabric pen and draw the face on.
STEP 8: Stitch your face, using a satin stitch to make your eyes and nose solid.
STEP 9: Now, the underside of your creature is ready for some glue! Taking your felt glue, trace the edges with a generous line, leaving the bottom of the felt alone. Remember that your finger will need to fit in somehow!. I also use a little more glue around the floppy bits. For example, the ears on this fellow are really floppy and keep wanting to fall forward. This glue really hardens, so I'll go more generously around these floppy areas so that the end product has nice and perky ears.
STEP 10: Turn your glued creature over onto a large piece of felt, large enough to be the backside of your puppet and then some. Now, go get yourself a drink or check out what's on TV and let your glue dry. For the best result, DO NOT get impatient like me and start hacking away at your puppet right away.
STEP 11: Since you were patient, get back to your puppet project and trim around the front side of your creature. Go around the back and do some spot checking, cutting any fuzzies or other outlying pieces of felt. Go ahead and try your puppet out and make sure that your finger will fit.
Because I'm an auntie, I spend my weeks leading up to Valentine's Day making a red, black and hot pink spider piñata and winter days gluing "jewels" onto a gold spray-painted backscratcher. I love crafting and I love my nephews! Holidays give me a reason to spoil those rascally boys. Okay - so I don't need a reason, but it makes me feel a little bit better about said spoiling.
These Easter finger puppets are my newest holiday gift/creation. A little bit of felt and embroidery floss and you have a great Easter gift that will promote imaginative play! Felt and floss skeins run around $0.25/each - making this a budget friendly craft! Plus, if you won't be seeing your little buddies this Easter, these easily fit inside of an Easter card preventing any hefty mail fees.
STEP 1: Cut out your printed paper pattern shapes. Still need your pattern? Get it here. Decide if you want your Easter creature to wear a cute little bow tie or hair bows and cut those out as well.
STEP 2: Using your fabric marking pen, trace your cut out pattern shapes onto your felt.
STEP 3: Cut your shapes out of the felt.
STEP 4: If using felt glue, place a small daub in the middle of your shape. Try to stay away from the edges. Felt glue dries very, very hard and getting your needle and thread through that will result in repeatedly stabbing your thumb (trust me).
STEP 5: Start tacking down your felt shapes using your needle and thread. Your embroidery floss comes with 6 strands. I choose to split the strands in half and embroider with 3 strands a go. The number of strands you use is your preference. For thicker, more pronounced stitching, use more. For daintier stitches use less.Come up through the back piece and make your first stitch. If you continue making stitches in the hole you just came out of, you'll have a pretty nice line. Don't worry about if your line or stitches are perfectly straight/spaced out. My Mimmie always told me that people aren't perfect so don't worry about perfection. I think that imperfect stitching lends itself to a more handmade/rustic look.
STEP 6: Begin attaching your other pieces with your thread and needle (and glue if you're using it). Stitch all around the shape of your creature, attach bows if you're adding them.
STEP 7: It's time to add the face! With your fabric pen, draw on the shape of the face you'd like to embroider on. If you're not comfortable embroidering the face, you can always use a permanent fabric pen and draw the face on.
STEP 8: Stitch your face, using a satin stitch to make your eyes and nose solid.
STEP 9: Now, the underside of your creature is ready for some glue! Taking your felt glue, trace the edges with a generous line, leaving the bottom of the felt alone. Remember that your finger will need to fit in somehow!. I also use a little more glue around the floppy bits. For example, the ears on this fellow are really floppy and keep wanting to fall forward. This glue really hardens, so I'll go more generously around these floppy areas so that the end product has nice and perky ears.
STEP 10: Turn your glued creature over onto a large piece of felt, large enough to be the backside of your puppet and then some. Now, go get yourself a drink or check out what's on TV and let your glue dry. For the best result, DO NOT get impatient like me and start hacking away at your puppet right away.
STEP 11: Since you were patient, get back to your puppet project and trim around the front side of your creature. Go around the back and do some spot checking, cutting any fuzzies or other outlying pieces of felt. Go ahead and try your puppet out and make sure that your finger will fit.