Monkey Felt Finger Puppet Free PDF Pattern!

I decided to make my son some felt animal finger-puppets. He loves animals, especially monkeys, right now and we're working on learning how to pronounce all their names and make the noises they make. I thought finger puppets would be a great way to supplement the learning-about-animals we've been doing with books, Fisher-Price Little People, singing "Old McDonald", and staring & pointing at the occasional woodland creature who strays into our "backyard" (We live in an apartment, so I'm using the term pretty loosely).

I remember thinking they were fun as a kid, and also figured they were simple enough I might be able to actually make them successfully despite my limited sewing skills. The fact that felt is dirt cheap is an added bonus (20-40 cents for an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet in my neck of the woods).

So I started hunting for patterns. I fell in love with these patterns on Etsy, but couldn't justify spending $5 for 5 patterns.

I enlisted the aid of the children's librarian and scoured through dated books on puppet-making, all to no avail.

So I took a big gulp, and made my own. And to my amazement...it worked! I used the auto-shapes in Microsoft Word for the shapes, and hand-embroidered the eyes, nose, & mouth. And here's what my completed monkey finger puppet looked like:


His neck was a bit too long & narrow, so I corrected the pattern. So if you follow this pattern, the neck will be more like this bunny (pattern coming next!):


Anyway, I want to share my patterns with you guys, for free. So click here to get to the PDF of my monkey finger puppet pattern (on Google docs) and feel free to print it, use it, customize it, & share it! And please leave me comments to let me know how it goes or if you have any questions. I'm hoping to make lots more-you can see I already made a bunny (for his Easter basket) and I'll try to post as many patterns for you as I can.

Materials needed for monkey finger puppet:
Brown felt
Light brown or white felt.
Embroidery floss in the same two colors as your felt.
Sewing needle
Scissors
Pattern

Print the PDF pattern & follow the instructions on it. For the eyes, I used satin stitch to make some rough ovals, then backstitch to outline them. I used backstitch on the nose and mouth.


Let me know your feedback so I can improve this pattern & any future ones!

I'm participating in:





March’s Families, Create! challenge was filled with awesome animal-themed posts. From Mo Willems to monkey finger puppets, our writers and crafters kept busy getting creative with the little animals in their lives.

Visit Code Name: Mama and Living Peacefully with Children to find out how you can participate in the next Families, Create! Carnival. Our April theme is "Fantasy" - childhood is a fascinating time, filled with magic around every corner. What can your family imagine and create?

Please take time to read the March submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Lizz at Am I a Funny Girl turns a family outing at the zoo into a picture book to keep.
• The kids at Living Peacefully with Children celebrated the emergence of Spring with butterflies. Check out their Coffee Filter Butterfly mobile and Pipe Cleaner Art.
• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes offers helpful ways for a child to remember calming techniques with a “Calming your Beast” basket.
• Most of us have monkeys running around our house at times. Or lions. Or elephants. Make your child's creative animal play even better with stuffed animal tails! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares an easy tutorial.
• Galit Breen at These Little Waves shares an easy way to get creative with Mo Willems' "We Are In A Book."
• Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares a look at butterflies through metaphor, books and a coffee filter craft.
• Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children knitted some simple Nugget Bunnies for her children's Ostara baskets while practicing a new technique.
• Amy at Anktangle shares photographs of crocheting a lovable stuffed turtle for her son to play with.
• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes knows a few ways to bring beneficial birds to the garden.
• Megan at Purple Dancing Dahlias shares a fun little first sewing project.
• Lauren at Hobo Mama has a fun and easy game to make to stimulate your preschooler's memory.
• Using her children's artwork as inspiration, Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children woodburned wooden eggs for them to color in honor of Spring.
• Aunalise at My Sweet Potatoes is making nature bags or field bags for nature journals and the other things we may need as we explore our planet.
• Animals are the inspiration for this set of handmade clay items for an I Spy bag at Living Peacefully with Children.