Talking dogs

For some time now I've been toying with the idea of what you might call a "hidden arm" puppet. This is a puppet attached to a shirt of some sort. The intent is that a false arm appears to be holding the puppet while your real hand manipulates it. 

This is actually a pretty easy puppet to make. What you'll need is a loose fitting shirt of some sort (I used a hooded sweatshirt), a large-ish stuffed animal (Build-a-Bear sized works pretty well), sharp scissors, thin cardboard, and some knit fabric. I'd hoped to do a full tutorial for you but I forgot to photograph the middle steps so I'll describe those as best as I can.

Preparation:
1. The first thing you'll want to do is cut open your puppet's mouth. The dog I was using actually had a folded over lip that was just about perfect, but most stuffed animals have a stitched on mouth that should work pretty well as a guideline. Once you've got the mouth cut, go ahead and pull the extra stuffing out of the head and set it aside for later.  

2.Cut a hole in the animal's back that gives you access to the mouth, probably from the neck down about 4-6 inches. If the animal you chose has a narrow neck, you'll need to cut into the back of it's head. Don't be afraid to cut farther than you think you'll need. You can always sew or glue that back shut. Pull some extra stuffing out at this point. You'll want the animal pretty floppy so you have room inside of it to work. 

3. Decide which arm will be holding the puppet. This will generally be your dominant arm. Cut a hole in the armpit of your shirt large enough to fit your arm comfortably through. I also cut several inches down the sleeve to give the top of the shirt a more natural look. This also gives your arm a little more space to move.

4. Sew the end of the dominant arm sleeve shut. To make the false arm more convincing you might want to stuff the sleeve lightly with fiberfill or even some rags. If you're using a sweatshirt like I did you can sew the sleeve cuff into the front pocket. For a regular shirt you'll need to tuck the cuff firmly into your pants pocket. 

My false arm isn't stuffed in this photo and you can see how odd and flat it looks.

4. At this point you're going to want to make a sort of sleeve out of your knit fabric. This sleeve goes inside of your puppet, so you'll want to make a tube of fabric that fits loosely around your forearm. It needs to be long enough to reach from the puppet's mouth to the hole you cut in it's back. You can sew your tube but hot glue works pretty well too. You also need a circle of fabric the same circumference as your tube. Think of it as a "cap" for the tube. Attache this circle of fabric to one end of the tube.

5. This part is a little tricky. Cut 2 half circles about the size of the puppet's mouth from the cardboard. These give your mouth stability. Glue them to the inside of your fabric tube, resting against that "cap" you made. Now you need to insert the tube into the puppet. Line up your cardboard circles along the puppet's upper and lower jaws. I found hot glue was the easiest way to attach the tube into the puppet's mouth.

6. Remember the stuffing you removed earlier? It's time to put that back into your puppet. Stuff it just enough to give it some shape. If you over-stuff it will be uncomfortable when you work the puppet. 

7. Attach the top of your fabric tube to the opening you cut in the back of your puppet. Again, you can sew this but for mine hot glue worked pretty well.

My fabric tube was a little long, so one edge hangs out of the puppet's back. I tuck it around my wrist when I use the puppet.

8) optional: At this point, you can attach the puppet directly to the shirt. You may find it easier to leave the puppet unattached and simply tuck it into the crook of the false arm when you want to use it.
 

Finished puppet!