Jungle Animal Finger Puppets with Free Pattern
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Let’s go on a little jungle adventure together! This free jungle animal finger puppet pattern is a fun project for kids who love animals and pretend play. You’ll find a friendly lion, a tall giraffe, a curious monkey, a gentle elephant, and a rhino, too. These wild animal puppets are easy to make from felt and perfect for storytelling, classroom fun, or quiet playtime at home. I love how quickly they come together — and the best part is watching little ones bring them to life with their imagination. Download the free printable template, grab your felt, and start crafting your own mini jungle today. If you want to expand your finger puppet collection, check out my free finger puppet patterns.
Happy Finger Puppet Making!
If you want to explore more free felt patterns, visit Freebies with its 50 free felt craft patterns.
Tips for Making DIY Animal Puppets
These DIY animal felt finger puppets are simple to create. They are stitched entirely by hand, using a running stitch, French knot, backstitch, and whip stitch. Looking for help with embroidery stitches? Visit the post 9 hand embroidery stitches for felt to learn more. Gather some felt scraps, scissors, a needle, and floss from around your home, and enjoy making this animal finger puppet for kids.
Tips for Working with Felt
TIP best felt glue: Have you wondered what is the best felt glue? Read the findings of a test comparing 8 different adhesives for felt.
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.
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 tracing on felt: Learn how to trace the pattern on felt with these four tracing techniques.
Materials & Supplies for Safari Animal Finger Puppets
Jungle Animal Finger Puppet Free Printable Template - download the file.
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 (I used ivory, brown, blond, pink, white, blue, orange, red hair color)
Small or embroidery scissors (KAI 5 1/2 inch Embroidery Scissors or Fiskars Stitchers Scissors No. 5 are the ones I use)
Embroidery thread: matching colors to the darker tone of felt, black, and white
A glue that works on felt (optional - Beacon Fabri-Tac glue works well)
Jungle Animal Finger Puppets Free Instant Download
How to Make Jungle Animal Finger Puppets
Let’s create a fun DIY felt jungle animal puppet set that’s simple and great for kids. This collection includes five jungle animals — a lion, an elephant, a monkey, a giraffe, and a rhino — as finger puppets. Start by printing the jungle animal finger puppet template. Once you have the pattern, follow each step carefully to cut and sew your felt jungle animal puppets.
DIY felt jungle animal puppet tutorial
Use the free safari animal finger puppet template to cut out all pattern pieces from felt. Visit the section above to download nad print your template.
Eyes - With one strand of white embroidery floss, whip stitch around each felt eye to attach them. For the pupils, use a French knot with three strands of black thread (wrap the thread three times around the needle).
pupils with three strands of black embroidery thread (wrap the thread 3 times around the needle).
Tip: You could use self-adhesive googly eyes instead of drawing the eyes. I would only opt for this option if older kids use the finger puppet.
Follow the pattern for each jungle animal — for example, sew the lion’s mane, the elephant’s trunk, or the monkey’s ears — using the easy animal finger puppet pattern for kids.
Finally, place the front and back of each puppet together. Hold them with pins or your fingers and use a running stitch along the edge with two strands of embroidery floss.
When you’re done, your handmade jungle animal finger puppets will be ready for storytelling, pretend play, or as a fun craft gift idea.
Step 1 - Cut all felt shapes from felt
Step 2 - Sew and embroider eyes
Step 3 - Example of the next steps: lion finger puppet
Step 4 - Following the template, sew the front and back body pieces together
Safari animal puppets
ZOO Animal Finger Puppet with Free Printable Template
Make Your Easy, DIY animal finger puppets
Free Safari Finger Puppets Pattern Conclusions
In conclusion, I hope you and your little ones enjoy bringing these jungle animal finger puppets to life! Kids can roar like the lion, swing through the trees like the monkey, or stomp around like the elephant. These DIY felt jungle animal puppets are perfect for storytelling, pretend play, or learning about jungle creatures in a fun, hands-on way. They’re easy to make, free to download, and sure to inspire creativity and imagination. Don’t forget to grab your free jungle animal finger puppet pattern and share your handmade creations!
Be sure to visit this website for free embroidery and sewing tips and tricks to help you as you stitch my patterns. For round-up posts of felt patterns, visit the felt crafts category on Fun Cloth Crafts.
Let’s craft together!
XO, Anna
