I'm in no danger of being mistaken for a glover.
The next event I'll be attending is a Regency outing to the Fort Worth Symphony's Beethoven concert. It's in about a week. And since it wouldn't feel like a real event if I didn't heap tons of work on myself at the last minute, I figured I'd better make myself a pair of fancy evening gloves.
I started with Kwik Sew #2326, which is designed for stretchy fabrics. My fabric is an off-white suedecloth and has a negligible amount of stretch.So, I did a LOT of slashing and spreading. I also lengthened the fingers to match my actual fingers and allowed extra room at the glove top for my 'generous' biceps.
A lot of surviving gloves have embroidery. I have a love/hate relationship with my embroidery machine, but if there's ever a time to get over yourself and just do it that time is when you need embroidered gloves!
My first hurdle came right away - literally my first seam. I'd slashed and spread everything except the thumb! Finger-sized thumbs just aren't gonna cut it.
Back to the cutting room for some slashing and spreading. Oh, and more embroidery.
That's better!
From there it was a combination of tedious machine and hand sewing. Seam allowances for gloves is 1/8" and that takes extra concentration. I set the thumbs into the glove body by hand because that really is just easier, if more time consuming. I have a special foot that helps get a true 1/8" seam allowance (in theory) but it does require you to sew 'backwards' with the edge of the fabric along the left side of the presser foot.
Still, I did have some issues that will need to be corrected before an actual wearing.
I think they'll be good enough for an evening event in low lighting. One glove down, one to go!
I started with Kwik Sew #2326, which is designed for stretchy fabrics. My fabric is an off-white suedecloth and has a negligible amount of stretch.So, I did a LOT of slashing and spreading. I also lengthened the fingers to match my actual fingers and allowed extra room at the glove top for my 'generous' biceps.
A lot of surviving gloves have embroidery. I have a love/hate relationship with my embroidery machine, but if there's ever a time to get over yourself and just do it that time is when you need embroidered gloves!
My first hurdle came right away - literally my first seam. I'd slashed and spread everything except the thumb! Finger-sized thumbs just aren't gonna cut it.
Back to the cutting room for some slashing and spreading. Oh, and more embroidery.
That's better!
From there it was a combination of tedious machine and hand sewing. Seam allowances for gloves is 1/8" and that takes extra concentration. I set the thumbs into the glove body by hand because that really is just easier, if more time consuming. I have a special foot that helps get a true 1/8" seam allowance (in theory) but it does require you to sew 'backwards' with the edge of the fabric along the left side of the presser foot.
Still, I did have some issues that will need to be corrected before an actual wearing.
I think they'll be good enough for an evening event in low lighting. One glove down, one to go!