What do I get when I buy the animal puppet sewing pattern?
You get a pdf document that is about 20 pages or so containing color photos with instruction and black and white pattern pages. The pdf is a digital file that you download and open using Adobe Acrobat.

How do I buy a pattern from your site?
Check out our step by step tutorial guide.

I can’t print. Will you print and mail it to me?
Sorry, but no. If you want to go local, than an office supply or print shop can print from a pdf. There’s also tons of online print services that can print from a pdf. You can either take in a flash drive with the pdf or upload it online.
Note: The pdf you buy is compressed to make a small file. If you do prefer to get a professional print job, contact us. We can send you the file separated into two parts at a higher quality. The color pages can print double sided. The pattern pages can print black and white one sided.

How should I print the pattern?
The only pages that really need printing are the pattern pages and they are at the very end of the pdf. When you print just select the page range. Also, make sure the Page Scaling is set to None.

How do I use the pattern?
The eco-friendly tech version – save the pdf to a portable device such as an iPad, chromebook, laptop, etc. Only print the last few pattern pages on black and white one sided. View the instructions and videos on your computer while making the pattern. Saves paper and ink. Otherwise, just print out all the pages.

I found an error in the pattern pdf. Should I let you know?
Yes, please. We go bug eyed creating patterns after a while and miss things.

Can I sell a finished puppet?
Yes. In fact, if you are confident in your sewing abilities, we’d love to have someone to refer people to.

Can I sell a pattern based off of your pattern?
It depends. If the pattern is varied enough and created from scratch (i.e.. not copying and pasting from ours), then go for it. We’d love to promote it too and we’d really love to be sourced as the original. And by varied, we don’t mean sticking a beard on the sheep and calling it your goat.

Can I resell your pattern, put it up on file share, or give copies away to all my friends?
Um, no, no and no.

Where can I buy your sewing patterns?
From our Etsy store or our website. Choose a site that makes you the most comfortable. Etsy has the most payment options, but Etsy requires creating an account to buy from them. Our site doesn’t require you to create an account.

What are your payment options and is it secure?
Our site only uses PayPal and they accept a PayPal account, Credit or Debit Card. We don’t handle any of the payment processing, so it depends on how much you trust PayPal for security.

I don’t sew. Do you sell the finished puppet?
Sorry, but no. Your best bet is to contact a seamstress, tailor, sewist near you. Buy the pattern and take it to them to make the puppet. Or maybe ask a friend or relative who loves to sew.

How much sewing experience do I need to sew a puppet using your pattern?
It depends. We recommend watching the how to video for the puppet you want to make. It shows all the steps, albeit with editing and faster speeds. We rank the patterns as intermediate, but some are easier than others.

How long does it take to sew a puppet?
It depends on the puppet and your sewing experience. I rank my skills pretty high, since I’ve been sewing on and off for over 55 years. It takes me about 2 hours from start to finish.

Why are the puppets made from fleece?
Fleece is stretchy and is very forgiving to sew on, especially for a beginner sewist. From the viewpoint of a puppeteer, the finished puppets are very lightweight as compared to store bought animal puppets. They are very easy to wash and dry. The whole puppet is safe for little ones as long as everything is sewn on securely.

What kind of fleece should I use?
Many recommend anti-pill fleece, but I actually prefer the cheaper blizzard fleece found at Jo-Anns or hobby stores.

What kind of felt do I use?
I list in the pattern to buy felt sheets found at fabric and craft stores. This is mainly for ease of purchase. I usually buy felt by the yard and cut my own sheets. This saves me money. The eco-fi felt works well. The premium felt might be a bit too thick for some puppet motion and features, but I’ve used it in the past without problem. I haven’t used real wool felt, so can’t give my feedback on that.

Can I change the eyes?
Most definitely! You can put on googly eyes or animal craft eyes that can be purchased from a craft store. We chose the type of eye that we did because we wanted the “cartoon” look for our puppets.

Can I use fur instead of fleece?
Yes, but… Fur can be really messy to use depending on the type. You also have to account for the wrong side of the fabric. If you’re using the puppet with gloves on, then it isn’t a problem. If you’re using your bare hand, then the rougher texture of some fur can irritate the puppeteer.
Then there is lack of stretch. Fleece has different degrees of stretch, but most fleece is stretchy. Fur stretch varies, but a lot doesn’t stretch at all.
One more challenge I’ve run into with fur is functionality. A cow puppet I made turned out looking great, but doesn’t function as well. The inner fabric is slippery, so it slides on the hand and both the foam and fleece skulls slip around inside when used.

I’m a sewing teacher. Can I use your pattern to teach?
Yes. In a perfect world, you’d have each student buy the pattern from us before your class. However, most classes have the teacher/facility provide the materials/supplies or have them in the store like Jo-Ann’s for purchase. It wouldn’t make sense for you to buy repeats of the same pattern from us every time you teach a class using our pattern. So we would allow (for educational purposes) the teacher to buy one pattern and provide copies to the students as long as the students know there are many other patterns available from us to make. Then you send happy new sewing pupils our way.

Why don’t you sell your finished puppets?
First reason is a limit on time. Second is that it would cost too much to make it worth my time. Third is I get bored too easily. I love the pattern creation process, but after making all the prototypes, I’m done.

Can you personally teach me how to sew using your patterns?
Yes. If you live in the Tucson, AZ area, then I offer one on one instructions on how to sew my puppet patterns. I can even bring one of my sewing machines if you don’t own one. If you have zero experience, then the time might be longer than the quoted 2-3 hours.

Can I send you a photo of my finished puppet?
Absolutely yes. We love to see what you’ve made using our patterns. If you allow us permission, we can put up a gallery of customer creations on our website.

How big are the puppets?
They are approximately 14” tall. They fit older children and up to large adult hands most comfortably. Four year olds can operate them easily even though the puppet is a little bit too big.

Who is The Tucson Puppet Lady?
My name is Rose Mayer and I fell in love with puppets back in 2012. I didn’t expect things to evolve like they have, but I’m still loving every minute. However, I do have a helper in my daughter. She handles most of the technical and design aspects. And my husband adds his two cents in on quality control now and then. The bulk of TTPL is done by two people, so if an aspect tends to slack or get neglected, that would be the explanation.

In addition to loving puppets, I love children’s books. I think the combination of books and puppets is perfect to bring books to life for children. I am so pleased to have found an outlet for expressing this joy of puppets and books as a volunteer for Make Way For Books, an early literacy organization based on Tucson AZ. Every week I look forward to reading to all of the classrooms (nursery to 5 year olds) at a local preschool.

How can I contact you?
Best way is by email and/or our Contact form. You can also contact me through Etsy conversations and Facebook.

How often do you check email?
I try to check every morning and evening, but please give me 24 hours to respond before contacting again.

I want to leave a comment on the blog or YT, but I can’t. Why?
This goes back to the 2 person job thing. While we love comments, we don’t much care for spam and trolls. I’ve had comments turned on with websites and YT in the past with not so positive results. So I just sacrificed this aspect. If you’d like to contact us, then email is your best bet.