Thumbs - Vivian Kapusta

I pondered on this one for a while … stared at my design board … and the little puppets pinned in the corner.

As a teacher, I used these puppets as a first project for the grade 8 introduction to sewing. My seniors loved coming to help!

The students decided on the shape, embroidered / glued the face and sewed the second piece on to make a finger puppet. In the process, they learned to sew a hand seam, do French knots, buttonhole stitch and sew a button on.

Then, each of the 5 classes that day (usually a Friday) were turned loose for their next class! I warned the teachers and they planned short puppet plays, etc. These three were the last! Originally, I had a box full of demo puppets. I pinned these to the background so that visitors to my studio could still play with them!