Fabric Hand Puppet Kits.

Finished size of puppet: 21 x 26 cm

Each kit contains:

- A cloth pattern piece printed onto organic cotton
- Two sewing needles
- Pins
- Thread
- Lambswool stuffing
- Instructions
- Story Card

You will also require scissors (not included)

 *Please note: the embroidery hoop, feathers and embellishments shown in the pictures do not come with the kit. These are examples of additions you can make with your own found fragments of materials. Why not take a look at the Embroidery & Embellishment Starter Kit which goes really well with these kits.

A wooden stand can be purchased for £12 by selecting one from the 'drop-down' button above.

PLEASE NOTE: This product is not a toy. It is designed as an adult craft project, and requires basic sewing skills. The kit contains sharp objects (pins and needles).

THE STORY

A new collection of our popular Hand-Puppet Kits by Samantha Allan.

The three new designs include: A bee keeper with a netted face, cloaked in red and covered in bees embroidered in gold thread; a figure covered in rags and tatters with a mask made of confetti; and a fur-trimmed ghost of the snow forests, wearing a coat which contains the landscape she travels through.

The Hand Puppet Kits began three years ago by Samantha Allan and were originally inspired by the hand puppets Paul Klee made for his son in the early 20th century. A love of folk lore, costumes and Charles Freger’s Wildermann and Island of Monsters books have continued to influence her designs.

This year, following on from the interest people have shown in adding their own embellishments to the hand puppet kits, we have designed them as a ‘modern sampler’, using a series of patterned embroidery stitches within the designs to suggest where embellishments could be made.

The Bee Keeper is particularly inspired by a Basque country folk costume, with it’s strange lace mask and robe, which the artist developed into a bee keeper with a gold bee adorned cape.

The Snow Traveller is inspired by stories from The Book of Russian Folk Tales. The fur trim can be added using a Knot Stitch (which you can learn from our book The Geometry of Sewing), while French knots in white wool could act as falling snow and a feather stitch for the central panel.

Mr Rags, one of our newest Hand Puppet designs is inspired by a certain sub group of Morris or Rag Dancers, who cover their clothes in scraps of fabric, wear masks and add feathers to hats. Designer of the kits Samantha Allan explains how she embellished her own Mr Rags - “I’ve covered the mask in a ‘seed’ stitch, put gold sequins in the eyes, and coloured straw in his head. I’ll be adding lots of little rags to his costume soon so he is heavy with them!”.