Tutorial - How to make Sock Puppets

With the winter school holidays upon us, I though I’d give this post to the kids 🙂

I made sock puppets with a small group of children last school holidays, they were a hoot!

What you will need to make your own sock puppet:

A sock
a piece of cardboard
felt shapes for decorating
google eyes
wool
any other decorations you can find
Craft glue. PVA will frustrate you as it doesn’t really stick fabric. You want the clear gummy kind.

sock puppet making materials — grab yourself a sock, a piece of cardboard, some felt, and anything you want to use to decorate your puppet! Don’t forget the glue!

Now on with the making!

First thing, cut your cardboard into an oval like shape and bend in half. This will become your mouth.

sock puppet mouth — cut a rectangle of cardboard 12cm by 7cm. Fold in half, round off the ends.

Next up, decide where you want your mouth in the sock. You want it towards the end of the sock, but experiment with placement, you might make a feature of some of the elements in the sock!

cut a hole in your sock — Cut a slit in your sock approximately 7cm long (the width of your cardboard)

Run a line of glue around one side of the cardboard, and gently stretch the opening in the sock (which you just cut) around the cardboard and gently press into the glue.

glueing a sock puppet mouth — Run a line of glue around the inside edge of the cardboard. Carefully stretch the sock over the cardboard, squishing the sock into the glue around the edge.

You might like to cut a piece of felt the same size as the cardboard piece and glue over the top of the cardboard and sock edge to make it look neat.

gluing a felt mouth into a sock puppet — To make the mouth look neat, cut a piece of felt the same size as your cardboard. Spread glue over the cardboard, and particularly on the edges of sock. Glue the felt one, starting in the middle and working your way out to the sides.

The next part is where your imagination can really be let loose! Use google eyes, wool, felt shapes, pop poms, buttons, and anything you can get your hands on to decorate your puppet and really bring its personality to life!