A long-ish story
How I met Bert.
Or: the puppet who turned into a small family business.
I was somewhere around 5th or 6th grade when my parents brought home a puppet. He had long, droopy arms and the kind of face that seemed to be quietly listening. He fit on my arm all the way up to my elbow, with arms long enough to wrap around my neck and down to my waist. I named him Bert.
Bert went a lot of places he probably wasn't supposed to. He came to school. He came on family road trips. Years later he came on a cruise and I have a polaroid to prove it. He's a little more flat in places than he used to be, but the seams are still tight — which says something about how he was built.
For years, Bert was just Bert — my puppet. Then a few people saw him and asked, "where can I get one of those?" The honest answer was: you can't. There's only one. My mom made him.
So we decided to change that. PuppetMom is mom making Berts, one at a time, for kids and grown-ups who want something handmade and a little bit weird in the best way.
Meet mom
The seamstress behind every stitch.
Mom has been sewing forever. When my sister and I were little, she didn't buy our Halloween costumes — she built them. One year our whole family went as the Muppets: dad was Big Bird, mom was Miss Piggy, my sister was Grover, and I was Kermit the Frog.
Another year I was Pacman and my sister was Ms. Pacman, complete with the bow. For our local Civitan club, mom sewed a giant two-person Clifford the Big Red Dog. (Yes, two people inside one very red dog.)
Bert was the puppet that stuck around the longest. Now mom is making him for other families.
"I don't make puppets to sell. I make them so somebody else gets to have a Bert too."— Mom
Want a Bert of your own?
Mom only takes a few commissions at a time so each one gets her full attention.
Commission your Bert