File puptcrit/puptcrit.0901, message 508


From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Mathieu_Ren=E9?= <creaturiste-AT-primus.ca>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:32:51 -0500
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Costuming a Puppet


Great topic, Paul!

I struggled with puppet costumes for a long while.
I still do in some specifics of it, but now I can do most of the things I 
need to.
When I require high levels of costume design, I hire a colleague 
puppetmaker, who's an amazing amazing puppet costume designer, having grown 
up with a seamstress mother, and teaching occasionaly in her sewing school.

Just two days ago, I asked her to come over and show me a few pointers I was 
missing, to increase my accuracy and speed in curves and small details on my 
sewing machine. I needed it in view of my current designing of a new line of 
glove puppets.  In exchange, I showed her the best of my paper mache 
techniques. Necessities of the work, turned into Fun times!

For many years, I only sewed by hand, and it was slow and frustrating.
Except for one short period of my childhood, when a strange madness took me 
over and I enjoyed making over a hundred mini pillows with scraps of fabric. 
My sibblings and I had even more fun throwing them at each other!

What changed it for me was as an adult, when I first started using a sewing 
machine, and bought a pattern, to make a Halloween costume. That single 
pattern took me two days to understand, but I made a pretty good costume, 
and it opened up some blocks in my head.
My sewing machine is an inexpensive Kennmore, still serves me well today.
I wish there had been the internet, and videos showing how to sew back then.

Over the years, I did more and more machine sewing, but never finding the 
right book for me, I just tried on my own, and asking for advice from more 
experienced seamsters whenever the occasion arose. The net is a good source 
of basic information, but if you can't find videos, the images and diagrams 
are sometimes hard o grasp.

Pattern making is a skill that comes in handy very often. What first 
"unclogged" me was when I first learned how to nip and tuck when making 
masks out of draped fabric.
for years, I struggled every time I needed to pattern something.
I always succeeded, but I felt it took too much time. Progress in speed was 
steady but slow.

Then, years later, the final wound that killed the remaining block, was when 
puptcritter Brad hired me as an assistant to build some mascots.  The rush 
left me no time for hesitation, and that drove me to progress very quickly. 
I still remember the short-lived anxiety when he gave me a giant 
four-fingered paw to make a pattern over it for a later application of 
synthetic fur.
It worked! Then rest of the patternmaking went fast.

Nowadays, I can pretty much pattern what I need to, out of foam or fabrics.
The more I do it, the less waste of materials, since I can "dial in" what 
shapes are most efficient, instead of nipping and cutting too much.

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