Buying, Downloading, Printing of Your Pattern
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.
How do I buy a pattern from your site?
Check out our step by step tutorial guide.
I just bought my pattern, where is it?
After buying a pattern, a window with a download link(s) should load after PayPal has processed. If for whatever reason the window doesn’t load, then you’ll receive an emailed receipt that has blue text download link(s). This will give you two chances to get your files. If the email doesn’t arrive for whatever reason, then contact us and we’ll be happy to send you the file(s) through email.
What do I get when I buy your sewing patterns?
The pdf is a digital file that you download and open using Adobe Acrobat. It is a pdf document that is approximately 20 pages containing color photos with step by step instructions along with the pattern that will print in black and white.
How should I print the pattern to save paper?
The only pages that really need printing are the pages with the pattern which are at the very end of the pdf. To save paper just print out the black and white pages by selecting print range on your printer. Only print the last few pages that contains the pattern using black ink and only print on one side. Also, make sure the Page Scaling is set to None. You can save the pdf to a portable device such as an iPad, Chromebook, laptop etc. Then you can view the instructions and video tutorials on the device while sewing the puppet. This procedure will save paper and ink. Otherwise, just print out all the pages.
How big are the puppets?
They are approximately 13”-16″ 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. The puppet can be either sized larger or smaller by choosing the scale on your printer. Or you can take the original pattern pdf into a print shop and have the printer either enlarge or reduce the pattern. See next question for more information about enlarging or reducing the pattern.
Can I enlarge the puppet and how?
The pattern pieces are sized and arranged to fit a standard 8.5 by 11″ piece of paper that every day printers can handle. Unless you have a special printer that handles larger pages, then a professional printer would be the best option for scaling larger than 100%. A professional puppet maker enlarges my patterns 125% to make the puppet larger for puppeteers performing on a stage. She takes the pattern files on a thumb drive to the nearest office supply store with a printer to have them enlarge and print for her.
Can I reduce the puppet and how?
The patterns were originally created for adult puppeteers and sized for larger hands. I’ve played around with reducing the pattern pieces to create smaller puppets. To reduce the size, see this blog post which gives detailed instructions on scaling patterns for smaller puppets.
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 color pages can print double sided. The pattern pages can print black and white one sided.
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.
Questions About Selling and/or Reselling
Can I sell a finished puppet?
Yes, you can sell the finished puppet anywhere you’d like. I don’t even mind if you open up your own online store to sell the puppet. If you open an Etsy store, I’d even be open to referring people to you when asked if I sell finished puppets.
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.
Questions About Sewing the Puppet
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.
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.
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, but I have made hundreds of puppets.
About Fleece, Felt, Fur and Eyes
Why are the puppets made from fleece?
Fleece is stretchy and is very forgiving to sew on, especially for a beginner. 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 feedback on that. I do recommend using stiff felt or friendly felt for the person puppet’s mouth. This gives more stability to the mouth function and less sagging.
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 back side of the fur is slippery, so it slides on the hand and both the foam and fleece skulls slip around inside when used.
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.
Miscellaneous Questions
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-Anns 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.
Can I send you a photo of my finished puppet?
Absolutely yes. We love to see what you’ve made using our patterns.
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. The bulk of TTPL is done by only 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 learned that while being a volunteer reader for a local preschool.
How to Contact Me and Why No Comments
How can I contact you?
Best way is by email and/or our Contact form. You can also contact me through Etsy conversations.
How often do you check your mail?
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 YouTube in the past with not so positive results. Also since puppets are considered children’s products, YT mandates that my channel have comments turned off. So I just sacrificed this aspect. If you’d like to contact us, then email is your best bet.