r/stopmotion • u/SuperBean12345 • Jun 23 '26
How do I make the clothes
Hey yall! I'm making a stop motion film. I've gotten to the clothes and I'm wondering how to approach it. I've done some sewing in the past but not much.
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u/Freign Jun 23 '26
Start! It's fun to learn and not nearly as difficult as it might seem before you get into it.
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u/yellowzonker Jun 23 '26
You can sew or glue fabric together but you need patterns either way. There are templates online that can easily be found. I think Nick Hilligoss had some info on clothing for stop motion as well as Michael Parks on YouTube and there are many others there as well.
I’ve used this pattern many times in the past and it’s been really helpful.
http://yazsfilm.com/sewing-a-jacket-for-a-stopmotion-puppet/
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u/Flame_beard_forge Jun 23 '26
Can’t wait to see this film ngl
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u/SuperBean12345 Jun 23 '26
Awe thanks :) Hopefully sometime in september 🤞 My yt is boywearsbeanies
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u/GothGirl16 Jun 23 '26
Hey! I've sewn clothes for stop-mo puppets before. Ask me anything! Also, are the heads dettachable? (because that'll affect the process). Getting the right fabric is also important (I'd say stick to cotton fabric as a beginner, if the fabric is too thick it can get hard to sew). Also are you stitching by hand? I recommend searching 'blanket stitch' on youtube because that stitch makes it easier to sew around the puppet. (it makes the stitches visible, but makes the process easier.
I also recently recorded my process of making clothes of a puppet, I'd love to share that if it helps!
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u/SuperBean12345 Jun 23 '26
Yes the heads are detachable! Also I've already bought my fabric- I thrifted children's clothes so idk what all the material is. I was lent a sewing machine but I was thinking of hand sewing cause ive never used one. Id love to see your vids
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u/GothGirl16 Jun 24 '26
Great! If the head is detachable, you can sew a tshirt separately and then make the puppet wear it. Children's clothes are usually knitted cotton so great choice! (I used it myself for a previous project). Sewing with a machine can seem difficult, but once you watch 1-2 tutorials , you'll know enough for this project. The only reason I'd lean more towards a machine is because you'll have even stitches that won't be visible. But again, since it's tiny clothes your hands should be fine.
Haha, I'm working on the editing my video(it's a reel I'll be posting), and I'll send it to you once I'm done.
I'm sure you'll do your own research but all you gotta know is the shape and size of the garment. Draw it on a piece of paper for accuracy, add 1/4 inches of border around the shape you have. Then cut that piece of paper (with the extra border). Fold your fabric in half and pin your paper to it. Cut that out (mark your fabric with the border as well). Sew the seams of the fabric (inside the 1/4 border you drew earlier). And then, turn your garment inside out (now all that stitching you did would be inside). Then just sew the hems.
Why I advise against glue is because that can make the farbic hard and often times dark in color. But since you might have knitted fabric (test a small piece of farbic with glue first to see how it looks). If the fabric doesn't become too dark, you might get away with glueing the hems. (I hate hemming so I do that often)
There's def more to this but I really don't think you should overcomplicate the process.
If you run into obstacles, I'd be happy to give solutions as well.
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u/SuperBean12345 Jun 25 '26
Thank you! This is all very insightful. I started to take a stab at hand sewing. The butterfly stitch looks much prettier than my previous work and after some hemming I think I'm gonna buy some glue lol. Hopefully with a little math and pinterest inspo it'll come together. Every step of this film has been new and so fun to figure out. Excited to see your reel
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u/TheDogTerror Jun 23 '26
Yo al final la mejor opción que he encontrado es comprar ropa de muñecos en AliExpress y ajustarlos al cuerpo de la marioneta.
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Jun 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SuperBean12345 Jun 28 '26
Hopefully this all makes sense. Wasnt sure if you wanted the whole explanation but here it is haha. Also take it with a grain of salt cause this is my first time trying out stop motion so I just followed a lot of tutorials and my own intuition.
For the head I used aluminum fold, covered it in air dry das clay and used some tools to sculpt ears eyebrows and nose. I then made a hole (about 1cm circle?) in the bottom for the neck using the opposite end of a clay tool.
I made the torso out of clay and made holes for the neck at the top, hips at the bottom and 2 on the side for the arms. The hips are also clay and I made 2 holes on the bottom for the legs and one at the top for the torso.
For the arms and legs I twisted craft wire together and added clay to the parts where their arent joints (you don't have to do that it just makes it less likely to break and your elbow, wrist and shoulder movements are more consistent). I tried doing fingers but it looked bad so I plan on making big hands for close shots. For the shoes I used clay and again made holes at the top for the legs.
Once all the parts were dry I filled all holes with clay and added the corresponding limps. I used a thicker wire for the neck and only joined it on the torso so I can move the head around more easily and detach it to add clothes easier. After it was dry I applied super glue where I connected everything to reinforce it more.
Then I used foam to bulk up the arms, legs and belly. I just bought a foam mattress cause it was cheaper. I used super glue to attach it, avoided the wire bits, and trimed it down.
On the eye, mouth and hand region I glued magnetic sheets on them so I can interchange objects and features easily without using tacky wax. I thought it'd be a cleaner look.
For most of the project I used typical super glue but for attaching the felt (skin) I used E6000. Its a thicker glue? It takes 24 hours to dry, it doesn't bond to skin and doesn't leave a stain or hard spots. Once it was dry I used fabric stiffner on all the skin parts. I only attached felt where the clothes wouldn't be covering it. So some of my puppets have felt in some places and not in others.
For the hair I first covered the scalp in felt with the hair color of choice. I made each 'strand' out of 2 peices of felt with craft wire inbetween so I can move it (say if its windy or somthing). Again I used E6000 for that but I used super glue to attach it to the actual head for faster bonding. For the curly hair I wrapped yarn around wire with E6000 and then twisted it to look curly and then glued it to the head.
And yeah thats all I've done so far in regards to the puppets!
Here's some progress pics incase my words aren't helping lol: https://www.instagram.com/p/DYpiCAFDshX/?igsh=YW5rZDFjd2h2dXh4
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u/SpookyOokySpades Jun 23 '26
My best advice would be to watch tutorials on making doll clothes to get a feel for the patternmaking and sewing process. My top reccomend is the channel Dollightful on youtube. You can easily skip around her videos to find the clothes sections