Puppets on the brain

I've always loved puppets. Almost every time I go Christmas shopping for nieces and nephews one of the items on my list of possibilities is puppets. And almost every time I can't find any. I'm not including finger puppets or puppets that are $30+. I grew up with puppets and a homemade wooden puppet theater made by my dad (with stage lighting and retractable curtains!) that was played with incessantly by six kids. It was awesome, even with just two puppets (which was all that was left by the time that I was old enough to play with it).


The other day Grace and I were watching baby einstein on youtube when it hit me. I could make puppets. Looking at the baby einstein puppets made me realize it would be easy to have a basic hand puppet pattern and modify it slightly for different animals.
I'm totally excited now. I've done more research and still haven't decided exactly what kind of puppets to make. There are so many possibilities! Maybe I'll make a couple puppets of different varieties and see which ones I like best.

I'm even dreaming farther in the future, if I really like making puppets I could start and etsy shop. There have got to be other people out there like me who think puppets are some of the most awesome toys ever and there is a serious lack of them in the affordable market.


Now I just need a sewing machine. Well, this is the beginning of my wish list.