Clanger Puppet pattern

Following on from my interview on The Clangers on BBC Radio Cumbria, I thought you might like to make a Clanger puppet for yourself?  Well, if so, here is the pattern for you  :)

You will need:  fleece fabric for the body - about 3 x A4 size.  Felt for the waistcoat, beads or buttons for eyes, yarn for hair, a little stuffing for the nose.

First of all you need to OPEN THIS FILE and print it off, then cut out the pieces.

Now, you need to cut two pieces of the side body part, and one piece of the front body part.

Time for some sewing.  Machine sewing is better but you can sew it by hand too if you don't have a machine.  

Take the single front body piece and one side body piece and lay the fabric right side to right side, with the arms matching as shown.

Sew from the centre of the top of the head on both pieces, right round the ears, arms and down the body to the bottom.

Now take the second side body part and do the same on the other side.

This time you will sew the remaining open seam - down the nose and down the tummy.

Turn your puppet the right way in and that's the basic puppet finished.

Add some beads or buttons for eyes, and some yarn for hair.  You can embroider a little nose on if you like.  I added some little claws with strong white thread.  Stuff the nose with a little toy stuffing.

Time for the waistcoat.  Cut out the waistcoat template from some felt.  Cut two neat circles for the arm-holes, then you can make your waistcoat a little different by cutting shapes into it, or by sewing things on to it.  How about some nice stitches around the hems and arms?

If you make one, I would love to see photos  :)

Talking about the The Clangers on BBC Radio Cumbria

So, do you remember the Clangers?  If you are around my age..... how old??..... you might well do.

They are bringing them back for new episodes in 2015.

The Clangers were little knitted fellows, with very large pointy noses and odd little waistcoats.

On Tuesday I got a phone call from BBC Radio Cumbria from one of the producers. Was I free to go into the studio and make a Clanger?   Oh, sure, I can do that........ em, what was I thinking?

Tuesday evening was spent trying to come up with something that was easy enough to do a quick demo to the studio cameras, yet that actually looked Clanger like.

The obvious would be to knit the Clanger, after all, the ones in the original series were all knitted.  But knitting takes time, and there just wasn't enough to get one done.

A quick trip around Hobbycraft found me some gorgeous soft pink fleece in Clanger colour, and the idea formed to make a Clanger puppet.

He actually came to life quite quickly in the end.  I made one, worked out the bits needed to make him better, re-cut the fabric and made a second, didn't like it so went back to the first and finished him off.

I will be sharing the pattern soon, so you can make your own - watch out for it on this blog  :)

So, at the studios I was half prepared with cut-outs and patterns and trimmings.  And Kevin Fernihough, the presenter from BBC Radio Cumbria got to work making a little waistcoat for the Clanger.

You can listen to the interview HERE at around 38:00 mins in  :)

In the meantime, why not watch an old episode and bring back the childhood memories.

Enjoy  :)