Adventures in Glove Making

I'll be honest, I was worried. I'd read up on glove making, but had never done so before. In my reading and in following other costumes on their progress, I kept seeing comments about how finicky and frustrating glove-making could be. So, I was worried. 

I have always found gloves to be too long in the fingers for my stubby little hands, so I knew working with a generic glove sloper wasn't going to produce particularly good results for me. So my first task was to create a pattern. 

I followed this guide for creating a glove pattern- a latex glove, covered in masking tape/painters tape instead of duct tape as its easier to work with one handed. I followed her guide on how to pattern your cuts, and cut it all out. Then I let it sit there while I panicked about how I hadn't gotten it quite flat and did I cut the hole for my thumb large enough and OH MY GOD ITS GOING TO BE A DISASTER!! (Because, you know, that's how my brain works)

Anyway, when we got back from the States, I knew I couldn't put it off any longer, not if I wanted to get things done by my self-imposed deadline. I had not one, but two costumes planned that involved gloves, so I really needed to sort the pattern out.


In the end, I needn't have worried. I don't know how the guide ended up with a pattern so large it required several alterations, but my first pair fit nearly perfectly. I'd made the set of gloves that would end up fingerless eventually in case I messed things up, but actually, they looked pretty well before I chopped the fingers off. 

The second pair I changed things up a little, skipping the flechettes altogether, as I wanted them a little snugger with more width past the wrist. Even they worked out first time although I went back and changed the them slightly once I compared it to reference pics.


I chose to make one continuous flechette (the part in between your fingers) for the pattern, which was the right call. Far less to piece together doing it that way. My seam was a mere 1/8" but anything greater would result in some oddities, I think. Really, though, the guide was very solid.

And now I have two pairs of self-made gloves. I feel rather accomplished with this, and have vague ideas of making non-costume gloves for myself, but that will have to wait. 

I never realized quite how knobby my knuckles were though until now...

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