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Finger puppets are incredibly simple to make. Here's a step-by-step tutorial of how to make one. You should of course, keep in mind the general guidelines of puppet design; you may also want to check out the post explaining what a finger puppet is. And here's a link to a short intro to what kind of materials you might need to make a finger puppet.

Step One

First, get yourself a large sheet of paper. A4 will do if you don't have anything bigger. Next, grab a pencil and trace an outline of your hand onto the paper; be sure to have your fingers spread as wide as comfortable. The outline of one of your fingers will be the basis for the size of the puppet, so you can pick one, or make a finger puppet for each of your fingers; either way, don't use your thumb as the basis, since the thumb is much shorter than the other fingers and won't be suitable for our purposes. (Click on images for larger views) 

Now around one of the fingers, you'll need to draw another outline. Start at the bottom of the left side of the finger, but give a margin of about 2cm (1 inch) from the original outline, and follow the line of the finger up and to the right, ending at the bottom of the finger. This extra width will allow your finger puppet to fit comfortably over your finger, as well as providing a margin for hems. Now, draw a line across the bottom of the finger (at the knuckle). You may want to add a margin for the hem here, but it really depends on how high you want the puppet to sit on your finger and how comfortable it is. If you find that anything over your knuckle (the one that joins to your hand) is uncomfortable, then make the puppet shorter. 

You should now have a large outline of the finger, in the shape of your finger puppet. Cut out the larger outline. 

Step Two

Take your piece of paper with the finger outline on it, and pin it to your material - you may want to use felt or cloth, doubled over. Because the material is doubled over, you can easily cut two pieces out in the shape of your outline. If the material has some stretchiness to it, ensure that the stretch is horizontal; because the puppet will be bent up and down, as the finger flexes, this increases the chance of the material being stretched out of shape. Having the stretch going horizontal to the finger means less chance of the material becoming too out of shape after some use. 

More experienced sewers can 'sandwich' the material with some thin foam sheet (ie. a layer of foam, on top of a layer of material, another layer of material, and another layer of foam on top of that), cut it out in the shape of the finger outline, and use that. It will provide an additional layer of padding to your finger puppet, but it isn't a necessary step. 

Take your two pieces of material and sew the sides together - sew left to right, around the top of the finger. - As you can see from the image at the right, the blue represents the sides sewn first. DO NOT sew the bottom of the pieces together, since this is where your finger will need to go. 

However, you should hem the bottom. - As you can see from this image, the blue represents the hem around the bottom; be sure to sew only the edges, otherwise you won't be able to put your finger in the puppet! 

When you've finished sewing, cut off the excess material if you have any, and turn the material inside out - if you are having trouble doing so, grab the end of a pen (capped!) or knitting needle, and use it to push the material inside out, taking care not to break the stitching. If you still can't turn it inside out, it's more than likely that the puppet is too narrow, and you should widen your pattern and start again. 

Step Three

You should now have a finger puppet - but it's a bit boring. So make it interesting by adding a face, some ears, arms or even legs. (Sorry about the crap photo of the finished product! I was going to make a sheep, but ended up with a panda bear!) 

You can also make a little costume, or other features to stick onto the material. Because you can personalise your puppet from here, I'm not going to give you any more advice, other than to find some fun things to use as materials for features: small beads make great eyes, and pipecleaners can be a simple way of adding a 'boa' for a costume; small pieces of felt of different colours can be glued or sewn on for lips, eyes, and noses; and miniature dolls clothes are an ideal size for finger puppets. 

You can do so many things from here, that really, the designs and characters are endless! And now you know how to make one, why not make a set and give them to your kids or younger relatives to play with! 

Need some more help with your finger puppet? Leave a comment and I'll try to assist you!

Want more? Help build a puppet!