For as long as I can remember studying puppetry for almost fifteen years, machine sewing was always a big no-no, everything had to be hand-sewn for a variety of different reasons: better control of stitching, better attention to detail, better at hiding seams, among other things. I even remember way back when, Rick Lyon blasted machine-sewing as a clear-cut sign of poor and cheap puppet building.
Now, as I've said many times before, building and fabricated was always one of my biggest weaknesses as far as puppetry goes, and although I've improved somewhat over the years, one thing I've always avoided all these years was machine sewing: I alway sewed by hand, utilizing various different sewing techniques from the Henson Stitch, to the whip stitch, to the ladder stitch, to the baseball stitch, to even "inventing" my own technique that sort of combines the baseball and Henson stitches, as you can see here (sorry for having my camera's exposure set too high):
However, I seen that in recent years, machine sewing has actually become more and more common and is even considered acceptable in puppet building - even Rick Lyon, who used to be a staunch opponent of machine sewing, uses sewing machines these days. I see some builders, such as Adam Kreutinger, specifically say heads should still be hand-sewn, but everything else (torso, arms, other appendages) are okay to machine sew.
Personally, I'm thrown off by this shift in mindset, because for years of being told to avoid machine sewing because it looks cheap, unprofessional, and poor, is now okay because it's quick, effective, and less time consuming . . . but again, it was always said that it's better to hand sew to ensure seam appearances are as minimal as possible, and that machine sewing wasn't as effective for that. Do any of you hear utilize machine sewing at all for your puppets, or do you continue to sew everything by hand? What are you thoughts on this?
Now, as I've said many times before, building and fabricated was always one of my biggest weaknesses as far as puppetry goes, and although I've improved somewhat over the years, one thing I've always avoided all these years was machine sewing: I alway sewed by hand, utilizing various different sewing techniques from the Henson Stitch, to the whip stitch, to the ladder stitch, to the baseball stitch, to even "inventing" my own technique that sort of combines the baseball and Henson stitches, as you can see here (sorry for having my camera's exposure set too high):
However, I seen that in recent years, machine sewing has actually become more and more common and is even considered acceptable in puppet building - even Rick Lyon, who used to be a staunch opponent of machine sewing, uses sewing machines these days. I see some builders, such as Adam Kreutinger, specifically say heads should still be hand-sewn, but everything else (torso, arms, other appendages) are okay to machine sew.
Personally, I'm thrown off by this shift in mindset, because for years of being told to avoid machine sewing because it looks cheap, unprofessional, and poor, is now okay because it's quick, effective, and less time consuming . . . but again, it was always said that it's better to hand sew to ensure seam appearances are as minimal as possible, and that machine sewing wasn't as effective for that. Do any of you hear utilize machine sewing at all for your puppets, or do you continue to sew everything by hand? What are you thoughts on this?