What is a life-size doll? Each of us has seen her at least once - this is a full-length suit of a person who looks like a animated cartoon hero, animal, bird and even popular food. Children's parties, entertainment and advertising events, thematic and corporate parties are not complete without them. Children will be delighted at the sight of a big beloved hero, and adults will not disregard such an unusual character of the holiday. Of course, the manufacture of such suits requires certain skills, money and time to work. But a person with great desire will surely get a life-size doll sewn or glued with his own hands . Let's see what they are and how they are made.
Types of life-size puppets
Life-size puppets are conditionally divided into several types:
- standard, consisting of a head and a body;
- squared or square-shaped dolls, for example juice packs;
- glove dolls - a single design worn over the whole body, for example Smeshariki;
- dolls with human features, consisting of a suit on the torso and decor on the head, for example: Betman or Baba Yaga.
It is easier to make such costumes in which you do not need to collect your head separately, because this is the most labor-intensive process. From this point of view, it is easiest to make a wrapping doll, such as Bob Sponge Square Pants. Now we will describe how the production of life-size puppets is done with our own hands.
What you need to make a doll-wrapping
To create a sponge Bob growth doll, you will need:
- one large cardboard box or several small ones;
- scissors and office knife;
- glue and glue gun ;
- a large piece of yellow felt fabric;
- pieces of fabric less white, red and black;
- transparent black fabric (fine mesh);
- blue circles for the eyes.
How to make a life-size doll
If you did not find a large box, you can cut out several necessary parts and glue them together. The height of the box is calculated as follows: measure the growth from the top of the head to the hips and add about 10 cm. There should be no bottom in the finished box. First, cut openings for the hands, eyes and mouth, they should be large enough to provide ventilation to the person inside. Next, measure the height and width of each side, cut out the rectangles of the fabric a little more than the desired size, sew on the inside, grease with glue and put on the box. Bend the edges inward, leaving all openings free. Now a black mesh is used, which is glued from the inside to the areas of the mouth and eyes. A red semicircle (tongue) and two white rectangles (teeth) are glued to the mouth, white circles of a larger diameter than the cut out holes are glued to the eyes outside, and there are already blue circles on them. Attach eyelashes from black fabric and sew the nose (a small rectangle of yellow fabric is sewn from the inside, stuffed with scraps and sewn to the face). A shirt is made of a white strip of fabric, pants are made of black, and a tie is made of red fabric. The main work is completed, it remains to supplement the suit with tights or golfs and shoes.
How other life-size puppets are sewn
With your own hands you can make not only a doll-wrapping - the easiest way for homemade production. Perhaps you want to please loved ones by presenting a life-size puppet in the form of a beloved fairy tale character or a cartoon of a more streamlined shape for the holiday. It will now be described what materials will be required and how to sew a life-size doll.
The necessary materials to create a standard life-size doll
To sew life-size dolls with your own hands, you will need the following materials:
- foam rubber of different thicknesses;
- Isolon
- needle-punched fiber (to flash on a sewing machine);
- various fabrics (fleece, fur, velvet-stretch, knitwear, velor and velor-stretch, lycra) to choose from;
- glue gun for gluing foam rubber to the fabric;
- adhesive for ceiling tiles for gluing foam rubber and isolon;
- self-adhesive film
- plastic bowls;
- banner mesh or car blinds;
- PVC
- acrylic paint.
If it is possible to master the art of airbrushing, it will be just wonderful: with the help of an airbrush you can significantly revive and unify the character, add shadows, highlights and even inscriptions.
Step-by-step manufacturing process
Choose a character - an animal or other favorite character that you will embody. Do-it-yourself life-size puppets are created in stages, first you need to draw a sketch of a selected, for example, animal manually or using special computer programs. Then it is combined with a figure of a man of medium height (from 160 to 170 cm) and, if necessary, the proportions of the animal are changed, the head is reduced and the body is lengthened so that the suit sits harmoniously. Now you can calculate the size and make patterns. Knowing the actual width of the suit, the required number of isolon layers is calculated. For example, if the width of the head is 65 cm, with the width of one layer of the isolon 4 cm, 16 layers will be required, 8 on each side.
Tailoring of life-size puppets is carried out as follows: the basis of the suit is taken from a regular jumpsuit, or rather its pattern. At least two sizes are added for a loose fit and for placing foam. For a thin suit, take foam rubber 1 cm wide, for a denser one - 2 cm. You can without it, but then at least use a synthetic winterizer. The size of the pattern is regulated based on the required volumes of the animal. For example, they remove the recesses on the waist if it is not needed, add a few centimeters if the tummy is needed, lower the bottom if the legs should be shorter. A layer of needle-punched fiber is applied to the foam layer, then the fabric and all together are stitched. It may be necessary to alter and correct the costume several times, life-size puppets are sewn with their own hands for more than one hour. Inside, make a lining of cotton knitwear. If the costume will be worn by one person, the lining can be glued, and if several - it is better to make it removable.
Then they do the most difficult thing - the head. First, the contours are cut out on the internal details: external according to the sketch of the animal’s head and internal according to the sketch of the human head, which will be inside. The cut parts are glued together, the surface is leveled or sanded. Thin foam is glued inside and outside the head, and fabric on top. Eyes, a mouth from a grid, a nose are pasted. Gloves are sewn separately, legs too. The process of making legs is similar to creating a head: pieces of isolon are also glued, cut along the contour of the outside and inside, so that the foot fits there.
You can make any life-size doll that you like. Let creativity bring joy and positive emotions.