How to Make a Monkey Puppet Out of Cloth

For children, make the monkey puppet from felt, gluing rather than sewing seams together

Puppets are made of paper, wood, plastic or cloth. The image of the monkey is as an agile, rather mischievous creature of the jungle whose antics provide entertainment and fun. In the wild, the monkey swings from vine to branch with ease and grace. Creating a simple monkey puppet from cloth gives the user a puppet with a flexibility that paper, wood and plastic don’t have and a durability that paper doesn’t offer either.

Things You'll Need

• Fleece, brown
• Felt - black, red, white
• Scissors
• Markers
• Monkey picture or outline
• Sewing machine
• Needle
• Thread
• Fabric glue
• Fiberfill stuffing
• Dowel rod
• Drill
• Drill bit,1/4-inch
• Rope
• Paint

Instructions

1. Purchase material to make the monkey puppet. Select a yard of soft, brown fleece material that gives the impression of fur. Also purchase black, white and red felt squares to create facial features.

2. Find and copy a picture of a monkey. Enlarge to the size needed. The important thing about the picture is that the picture shows a front view with arms and legs as well as the tail of the monkey. With transfer or carbon paper, transfer the outline of the picture to the inside of the fleece material. Do not include the tail. Mark out the head and arms. Mark a seam allowance all around the transferred monkey outline of 1 inch.

3. Fold the fleece material with right sides in and pin around the edges to keep it from shifting. Cut the monkey outline from both pieces of fleece fabric at the same time. Take the pins out of the discarded fabric.

4. Pin together the two sides of the monkey puppet, keeping right sides together. Sew a 1/2-inch seam all around the monkey puppet, leaving a 6 inch to 8 inch opening at the bottom, depending upon the size of the arm that will use the money puppet. The opening provides easy access to the inside of the monkey puppet you are creating. Fold the edges of the opening and glue or hem.

5. Snip the edges of the fabric all around the monkey puppet. Make the cuts toward the seam and 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch apart. Do not cut through the seam line. Make extra cuts on curves. These cuts allow the material to not bunch up when turned.

6. Turn the monkey puppet right sides out. Since monkey arms and legs aren’t all that big, it may take some effort to fully turn the them right-side out. Use a blunt ended, but long, instrument to push out the material along all the inside seams.

7. Open a bag of fiberfill and stuff the arms and legs of the monkey. Do this carefully, using only a small amount of stuffing at a time. When the arms and legs are filled, sew a seam across the arms and legs where they meet the body to hold the stuffing in the arms.

8. Add facial details by cutting them out of the black, white and red felt. Glue on circles of black on larger circles of white for eyes and a red triangle for a nose-mouth combination. Cut a 12-inch length of rope for the monkey’s tail. Paint it the same brown as the monkey puppet and sew it in the appropriate place on the puppet.

9. Cut a dowel rod into two 12 inch lengths. Paint the rods brown. In the end of each rod, drill a hole 1/4 inch in diameter all the way through the wood. Thread cord through the holes and tie around the wrists of the monkey. These can be used to move the arms with the hand that is not inside the monkey puppet body.

References

• First School: Spider Monkey
• DLTK: Monkey Template