A Doorway Puppet Theatre

I'm still quite a long way behind schedule in making handmade gifts for family and friends this year.

I haven't given up! Better late than never!

But to improve the motivation a little, I thought I'd take a moment to bask in the glory of an earlier gift, which I made for my five nephews and nieces in Brisbane for Christmas, 2012.

The project I chose was a doorway puppet theatre, featured in a great book called 'Cool Spaces for Kids' by Sam Scarborough (published by Hamlyn in 2009). This book is packed full of great ideas. I wish I had time to try them all!

My source of inspiration.

What the finished product should look like.

The book gives an outline of the process involved, and I didn't find it too difficult. The trickiest part was attaching the red bias binding (they used tape) around the stage, and managing the corners neatly.

Here is what my finished doorway puppet theatre looked like:

Time for a puppet show!

The doorway in my sister's home is wider than the one described in the book, so my puppet theatre was wider as a result. She didn't want to attach hooks to the wall, so my clever father made a timber frame with a rod to hang it from. So instead of tabs on the side at the top, I sewed a pocket to thread the rod through.

Laura, Joshua and Sarah put on a show.

The other issue with a wider opening was that it tended to gape at the bottom. Dad helped solve this problem too, by putting a very thin piece of timber underneath the bias binding before I sewed the back down. (I had taken the project up to Brisbane in January to finish using Mum's sewing machine).

Timmy took awhile to grasp the idea that you show the puppet and not yourself!

I gave Sarah, Josh, Ben, Laura and Timmy a puppet each, and the theatre as a group present. I'm not sure how much they have continued to use it, but they definitely enjoyed checking it out when they first received it.

Now to think of something for this Christmas ...