Sock Puppets – Fun Craft

Puppets and marionettes are a classic toy that has its origin in ancient times. They are toys that encourage imagination and creativity, allow us to invent stories, play role-playing games, develop themes, among other peculiarities.

Making sock puppets is really simple, and best of all, we practically have all the materials in our homes. We can use almost anything we have around the house to turn a sock or stocking into a fun puppet.

Puppets also have no age, since they are enjoyed by babies and children from preschool can be the creators of these puppets.

Materials for creating puppets

The essential materials to create these fun puppets will be: long socks or old stockings, large buttons, needle and thread, glue, permanent markers, fabric, felt and ribbon. After these necessary materials, we can introduce any element that comes to mind, such as craft eyes, ping-pong balls, colored wool for hair, doll hats, etc.

Creating

The simple steps for its manufacture will be the following:

• We will put our hand inside the sock, putting it in the form of a clamp to form the mouth of the puppet. We will mark with a marker the place where the lips are and where we will put the eyes and nose.
• We will choose the material we want for the eyes. They can be buttons, ping-pong balls, craft eyes, and we will stick them with glue or in the case of buttons we will sew them.
• For the mouth, we can cut out a piece of felt or EVA foam, to stick it in the place we indicated with the marker.
• And for the hair, we can cut a few pieces of wool of different colors, put feathers on it, or any material that simulates hair. Imagination is essential.
• There are no rules about what the puppets should look like, and any suggestions will be fine. We can put clothes, accessories, paint them, etc. And here’s the fun of creating this craft with kids.

Glove puppets

We can also create glove puppets in the same way as socks.

Practical tips

If you use these puppets with small children or babies, it is recommended that we adults use them representing the characters. Puppets may have small elements that can be unsewn or peeled off and could be swallowed by small children. Let’s try to use a strong glue so they don’t come off.

We can create a puppet theater to do the performances. Kids will love creating their favorite characters for us to bring to life.

Funny examples

Let’s look at some examples, both simple and more elaborate, of sock puppets.