Fleece is the knit fabricFabric is the outer surface of a puppet — the skin, the cl... More used as the outer skin on most modern puppets, prized because it stretches over foamFoam is the structural material most soft puppets are built ... More and hides the seams underneath.
There are two families, and the gap between them is the gap between a puppet that reads as professional and one that doesn’t.
Nylon puppet fleece
— sold today as Nylafleece, still called “Antron” by nearly everyone — has a dense, fuzzy pile that closes over a stitch line and swallows it. It has real four-way stretch, dyes evenly, and resists pilling. It is also mail-order and costs several times what the craft store charges.
Polar or polyester fleece
is the craft store option. It is thinner, the pile is shorter, and it will show a seam that nylon fleece would hide. That doesn’t make it wrong. It comes in every colour, it is available on a Saturday afternoon, and a well-sewn polar fleece puppet beats a badly sewn nylon one every single time.
Three things matter more than which one you buy.
Nap direction
Fleece has a pile that lies one way. Cut every piece with the nap running the same direction, or two panels of identical fabric will read as two different colours under light.
Stretch direction
Knit fleece stretches more across the grain than along it. Lay your pattern so the stretch runs around the head, not up and down it.
Stitch choice
The whip stitch, worked from the inside so the thread pulls the pile over itself, is what actually makes a seam vanish. The fabric helps. The stitch does the work.