Sockodile Puppet

Ann Jacobs Mooney creates a Sockodile hand puppet.

Carol: Welcome to the show. My first guest has an idea that will almost literally knock your socks off, she is the author of the Sock Animal’s Series. And she is the sock monkey mom herself, welcome Ann Jacobs Mooney. Welcome once again Ann. How do you like that billing, the sock monkey mom? Ann: I've been called a lot of things, but not that actually. Carol: Well actually, I mean, the mom, you really are. Remember way back we had just sock monkey, and look at the family that we now have. Ann: The family has grown. Carol: My gosh. And of course my favorite Freda Frog. I just realized, he's had an offspring. Is this the cutest? That’s so funny. And where did this interlope comes from? I hadn't seen one with braids before. Ann: That’s actually Cousin Braidy from the new Sock Animal Book, the Sock Monkey Family Reunion, this is the teenage cousin of the Braids. Carol: Oh gosh, she looks like she had a lip job too. But actually it’s Sockadile that we're doing today. Ann: The new one. Carol: So, do we start at the same place for a couple of socks? Ann: Same place as every animal I've done, which is this good old red heeled socks that have been around for about 100 years. Every animal is one pair. And this is how you cut the first sock for Sockadile. This is the front part of the body. Down here is going to be the tongue. And this is the back of the body. And this you're going to throw away. Carol: This is the whole sock, just like this? Ann: Yeah, exactly. Carol: Okay. Ann: This is extra and show you how to cut it. Carol: Better put your VCR on folks, these are easy, but difficult to remember. Okay. Ann: Easier than it looks like. And these two pieces here are from sock two, obviously. They're going to be lining our pieces to make this actually a real working puppet. These are going to be made into the eyes. And then these are all the legs, these two fatter legs for the back legs and then the skinny ones for the front legs. Carol: And the two of that you just toss? Ann: Yup. Little scraps here and there. Some people save them. Okay, ready to go, this one here is sock number one, it’s this piece here. Now you want these jaws, I want to turn this sideways. This is going to be, take this from sock number two, this will be the top. Carol: So these are just the cuffs that you cut off? Ann: These are just the cuffs and remember, this is still attached to the first one. But these that you’ve cut off, you do it, and then you sew them right sides together. Okay. Carol: All the way around or just? Ann: As far as the sides as you can go. Carol: Okay, and not across here? Ann: Not across there, yeah. Carol: Okay. Ann: Just around the edges. And the same down here. So it will look like this. And then what you're going to do is just turn them inside out, and you’ll end up with your little jaws. And they won't be sewn in the back part by the throat yet. But you’ll get to that later, so don’t do that yet. Carol: Okay. Ann: And if they come out uneven, I always put the bigger on top, so it looks a little more jaw like. Now he needs tongue to catch all those little frogs and little flies in the log. Okay. Carol: That’s just the one heel you put in there. Ann: That’s the heel. I just trimmed off the very edge so it’s the flatter edge that goes in to the back of the throat. Fold the white underneath. And you can sew it down like that. Carol: Now just sew it, the whole thing or you just leave it flapping? Ann: You could do either. My kids probably think it’s more fun if it flaps actually. I usually sew it down, but I like the flap right here. And then you're going to sew the top part of this white and the bottom part of this white together. Just kind of whip stitch it together, get the throat close up the tongue is in there. But make sure you don’t sew it all the way through, because you have to make sure the mitts going to work. And don’t worry about the fact that this is still open. That’s for the eyes. Okay, so we're up to having a mouth from. Needs to see. This is the heel from sock number two. Carol: So this is here. What did you do, just cut it right down here? Ann: Absolutely. Carol: Cut it off and you cut it right here. Ann: Yup. Carol: Okay. Ann: So you just cut it like that, you’ll end up with two little diamonds. These are the eyes exactly like Freda the Frog. Exact same style of how you make them a little round things. Carol: I don’t remember. Ann: You don’t remember? Carol: No. Ann: Watch your VCR. Okay, so you're going to take one of these, just do a little running stitch all the way through the edges. Then puff a little polyester fiber fill in there. Do your running stitch along there, pull it tight. And then you're going to make it into a little ball so that it really has a rounded look to it. Because remember the sock of Basil eyeballs kind of rounded and sit up a little bit. Okay, so you end up with these little eyeballs. Now this part will still actually be attached from your very first piece you had. You got to cut it open and rest these little eyeballs. Always put the tops of the triangles at the top so it will look a little cuter. And you're going to set that in there. Looks kind of like a cartoon of the Sockadile as oppose to the more authentic. Carol: I would say, yes. Ann: Okay, so then you're going to set those in. fold the brown on so that it has a little finish edge. And then pull it down. Carol: The main thing is that was the sock and you have to cut that part open. Ann: Yeah, you just do a little slit. Carol: So now he got his eyeballs like this. Ann: Okay, so we have, basically we're up to the section with eyes. Now what you're going to do is make him into a real puppet. To do that, you want to take this piece from sock number two. Turn it inside out. And then you're going to stick it in the middle here. Just put it together because you wanted to have, I'm popping his eyes out. You want to have four pieces of brown material. The bottom is the bottom part of your mitt. And you're just going to roll those edges together, facing each other a little bit and seam those just on the bottom. Leave these top two brown pieces open. Right, there's your bottom part of the mitt, right there. Carol: Actually, I should have it this way. This is it. Ann: Right, exactly. This is the part you sewn together. And leave these open, because we’ll be attaching the rest of the body to that top part. Carol: Okay. Ann: Now, then you take this from sock number one. Carol: This is the tail. Ann: Yeah, the pointed part. Carol: Where am I here? Ann: You are in the foot. And it was a piece like this. Carol: Okay. Cut this out. Ann: Yeah. Exactly. So then you're just going to stitch along the edges where you’ve cut it into kind of a pointed shape. Now turn this right side out. And this is going to be the back part. We're going to stuff it just a little. Now the stuffing for this is different from the other animals. A lot of these sock animals, you stuff them quite hard and firm, this you want to kind of soft and loose. Because crocodiles are kind of a wider animal, he's not really round. So do a kind of loosely. And you're also going to stuff a little bit in the front part of the body. So you just stuff this and make it kind of a little wide flat area. Now you're attach these. Now remember, you're not touching the bottom part of the mitt, this is the just the top two layers. And you're going to attach it like this, okay. So, and you just fold them together like that. And remember, if you're not happy with what the seam looks, you're going to be putting little ridges in them later for decoration. And this seam really does kind of disappear. So you stitch nicely along there and you have your body. Carol: Okay. Ann: All you have left are the legs and the trim. The legs come from sock number two. Remember the wider ones is kind of the trunkier back legs, Sockadile’s have that kind of big heavy legs on the back or crocodiles. Sockadiles have whatever you put on them. And the front two legs are the narrow ones. You cut them all the same. Basically you have a round piece that looks like a tube, cut an edge so you can stuff it. Cut it into a little bit of an hour glass type of look. This is what it looks like stitch it. Kind of an off balance. Carol: Okay. Ann: So the foot has a little more roundness when they come in. then you're going to turn them inside out and it will look like this. Kind of cool odd club. Then you stuff it and stitch the very bottom part up, so there's a foot. Carol: That is so cute. Ann: Okay, now, you're going to take the little legs. Attach them to the front. And again remember that you don’t want to go in, you're going to be doing that to the mid part. So make sure you don’t stitch too far in, just the top layer so you don’t close your mitt. Carol: Okay. Ann: Okay, and then you’ll add, that’s the same for all four legs. The little chunky ones in the back and these little skinny ones in the front. Carol: And then, how about these? You just pull that up and stitch on it. Ann: Absolutely. These are the machined, because you got a nice tight line. About an 8 ¼ of an inch or so, just to make little ridges. And then, now, this one I always had my mother test out my patterns. She thought it should have nostrils, so she put on these beads which are great. They're a little rounded ones with holes in them. And they do look kind of a nostrils. I like that. Carol: Now these are also stuffed, but you were saying earlier don’t put any if the kids are going to use it as a puppet. Ann: If the kids are going to use it as a puppet, which happens in my house. Just leave it open, but I’ll show you how it really does have a good look to it when you put your hand in. but if you're going to leave it around for decoration, as I'm sure your house is decorated in sock animal motif, you may want to leave it stuff so it looks cute.