Thanksgiving Crafts: Turkey Finger Puppet (Free Pattern)

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Thanksgiving is a time for family, food, and fun, and what better way to celebrate than with some turkey-themed crafts? If you're looking for easy and creative crafts for kids to make, turkey crafts are a great choice. From handprint turkeys to paper plate turkeys, there are plenty of options to choose from. One of the cutest and most fun turkey crafts for kids is the turkey finger puppet and best of all, there is a free pattern template available to make it even easier!

Happy Thanksgiving Crafting!

Tips for Making Turkey Puppet

This turkey felt finger puppet is easy to make. It is stitched entirely by hand, using a running stitch, French knot, whip stitch. The kids turkey puppet is sewn with running stitch only. Looking for help with embroidery stitches? Visit article 9 hand embroidery stitches for felt to learn more. This turkey puppet is an easy Thanksgiving craft made from felt scraps.

Turkey finger puppet hand embroidery stitches

Tips for Hand Sewing with Felt

TIP for sewing with felt: Explore the felt sewing tips to help you while sewing felt. You get to know what types of felt exist, what’s the best needle and thread for felt, how to trace on felt, and how to cut felt shapes.

TIP for holding pieces in place for sewing: Felt pieces can be pinned to the body shape to hold them in place until they are stitched.

Another option is to place a tiny dab of instant dry fabric glue on the reverse side of felt shapes and position them on the puppet’s body. I use Beacon Fabri-Tac glue for my felt crafts. Ensure you don’t place glue where you need to sew (I managed to do it this time, and it gets really difficult to get the needle through the dry glue :(.

TIP felt glue: Have you wondered what is the best felt glue? Find the findings of a test comparing 8 different glue for felt.

TIP for cutting felt: If you would like to learn tips on cutting out felt pieces, you can read my post about 6 techniques for cutting felt shapes.

TIP best felt scissors: Curious what are the best scissors to cut felt? Learn the secrets of the best scissors for cutting perfect felt shapes in Felt cutting made easy.

Materials & Supplies for Turkey Finger Puppet

• Turkey Finger Puppet Free Template - to download the file, subscribe to the FunClothCrafts newsletter. In the newsletter, you will find a password to the subscriber's Free Downloads Vault.

• felt scraps (find great felt at Benzie Design or find more buying options in the Types of Felt section of How to Sew Felt blog post): felt colors based on your choice (dark brown, brown, orange, light orange, red, yellow if you want to follow my colors), white

• embroidery floss: matching colors to the darker tone of felt, black, white

• embroidery needles

• small or embroidery scissors (KAI 5 1/2 inch Embroidery Scissors are the ones I use)

• pins (optional - these are my favorites) - I don’t use them that often anymore

• a glue that works on felt (optional - Beacon Fabri-Tac glue works well, and Aleene’s tacky glue for kids)

• googly eyes (optional)

Two free patterns in one - Turkey finger puppet kids craft and turkey finger puppet Thanksgiving crafts

How to Make Turkey Finger Puppet?

Follow these steps and learn how to make this easy turkey finger puppet.

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If you need some tips for sewing with kids, you can visit How to Teach Kids Handsew and Materials & Tools for Sewing with Kids.

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1. Turkey Finger Puppet Kids Craft

   This turkey puppet was sewn by my daughter (10 years old). We were ready in one hour. She needed help threading the needle and making a knot. She managed to go twice across the edge, so I helped her undo it.

1. Use the free kid’s turkey puppet template to cut out all felt shapes from felt.

2. Hold two feather pieces and sew with running stitch.

3. Add googly eyes, follow the template for reference. Sew or glue (Tacky glue) snood and beak.

4. Join front and back body pieces with running stitch. Leave the opening below.

1. Felt shapes for the turkey puppet kid’s craft

2. Sew feather with running stitch

3. Attach googly eyes, sew snood and beak

4. Join front and back puppet pieces with running stitch

Thanksgiving Kids Craft - Turkey Finger Puppet with Free Pattern

2. Turkey Finger Puppet with Free Pattern

1. Use the free turkey puppet template to cut out all felt shapes from felt.

2. Hold with a finger, pin or glue the white circles for eyes to the front of the turkey’s body shape, following the template. With one-strand white floss, sew whip stitch around the edges of the eyes to attach it. I do 8 stitches. Using the French knot, embroider the eye pupils with three-strands of black embroidery thread. I wrapped the thread three times around my needle to make the knot more significant.

   Tip: You could use self-adhesive googly eyes instead of sewing the eyes. I would only opt for this option if older kids will use the finger puppet.

3. Next, sew the snood, beak, and wings to the body with a whip stitch. Sew the wings only on the inner side. Don’t go totally to the edge; you’ll need the space for sewing later.

4. Position and attach feathers. Use the turkey puppet template for the correct placement. Apply a tiny dab of glue or hold the feathers with clips.

5. Sew the feathers with the whip stitch.

6. In the last step, join the front and back puppet body piece with a running stitch close to the edge.

1. Felt shapes for the turkey finger puppet

2. Sew eyes

3. Sew snood, beak and wings with whip stitch

4. Position feathers following the template

5. Sew feathers with whip stitch

6. Join puppet body pieces with running stitch

Turkey puppet with free pattern

Your Thanksgiving turkey finger puppet is ready :) Now that you finished, have fun with the turkey puppet - make it dance, talk and tell stories.

Other Finger Puppet Free Patterns

Thanksgiving Turkey Finger Puppet Conclusions

Thanksgiving time is a special occasion for gathering with loved ones and expressing gratitude. I hope you enjoyed making your turkey finger puppet craft using the free template. The joy of crafting your own puppet is incomparable, and it provides a sense of accomplishment and pride. Now that you finished, you can enjoy playing with the turkey puppet, making it dance, and telling stories with it. The possibilities are endless! Additionally, don't forget to share the craft with others so that more kids can enjoy crafting with the free pattern (tag #funclothcrafts). Whether you're hosting a Thanksgiving dinner or simply looking for a fun activity to do with your family, the turkey finger puppet is a delightful way to spread joy and laughter during this festive season.

Be sure to visit more on this website for free embroidery and sewing tips and tricks to help you out as you stitch my patterns. For free felt patterns, visit my Freebies page.

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Let’s craft together!

XO, Anna

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