How to Make Stretch Gloves
It's costume season and today we found ourselves wanting some long purple stretch gloves to go with my son's inflatable costume. As you probably know, it can be fairly easy to find white princess gloves or black villain gloves online. It's not so easy, however, to find the exact color or print you want - especially if you want your gloves to have specific details, such as being super tight, shiny, and long like what we wanted!
The good news is - you can make your own custom costume gloves using just stretch fabric and a sewing machine!
The basic idea is simple - you trace your hand and then cut it out and sew. But there are a lot of tips and tricks I will share with you today that will make the process super smooth, and your results will be great your very first time!
I like to use paper to make a template to save myself some time, but if you don't have paper available you can trace directly onto the fabric with a fabric marker. For today's tutorial I will be showing how to do it with paper. Let's get started!
First, take some paper and overlap the edges and tape in place, so you have a blank tracing area to use. Then have the model lay their hand and arm out on the paper, with fingers spread far apart, as shown. You can definitely use your own hand or arm, but in this case I am using my son's arm because the gloves are for him and we want a super snug fit.
Next, trace up and around each of the fingers, trying to keep the pencil pointing straight up and down, so the size and shape of the hand will be accurate. You can start just above the wrist, or if you want a long sleeve like we did, you can trace the full arm. Be sure to leave extra length for a folded edge, if you want one.
Now you're ready to cut out your template. As you cut, do not do so directly on the lines you drew! You need room for the seam allowances. As you cut, measure/estimate about 1/4" from the lines all the way around.* Look carefully at the photo. I cut with a 1/4" seam allowance all around.
Note: If your fabric has hardly any stretch (less than 50%), you will need to leave yourself even more room because the fingers are three dimensional rather than flat and you need them to fit in. If your fabric has 50% or more stretch, it will stretch plenty to go up and around the fingers, so cutting 1/4" around the line will be plenty of room.
Fold your fabric in half and check to make sure the main stretch is going from side to side. I strongly suggest that you fold your fabric with RIGHT sides together, so after you cut it will be lined up and ready to pin without having to flip it. Lay the pattern piece on the fabric.
Pin the pattern piece to the fabric. I have found that it works best to put a pin in each finger, near the top of the finger, as shown above.
I like to use my rotary cutter to cut up the sides of the arm, and then a large general curve around the pinned scissors. Then I use sharp fabric scissors to do the rest of the cutting.
After you cut the fabric and BEFORE removing any of the previous pins, flip it all over so the fabric is on top. This will make it much easier to align the fingers for pinning and sewing. Without removing the previous pins underneath, pin the two fabric layers together on each of the fingers, several places on the hands, and down both sides of the arms. See photo above.
After the fabric layers are securely pinned together, you can remove the pins on the back that were holding the pattern piece on.
Now you are ready to sew! Be sure to use a ballpoint needle and a stretch stitch (lightning stitch) and go slowly. As you sew between the fingers, lower the needle and pivot to make a clean corner between the fingers.
After sewing, check to make sure you didn't get too close to the edge with your stitching anywhere. If you did, go back and reinforce those areas by stitching again. You don't want fingers popping out of the gloves!
In between each of the flingers, clip the fabric within the seam allowance so the fingers will be able to spread. Make sure you don't clip the stitching or create any holes!
On the bottom edge of the gloves, you can leave the edge completely raw unhemmed, or you can create a hem. Some costumes even do well with elastic added to the top of the gloves. My preference, however, is to make a simple hem by folding the fabric to the wrong side of the fabric and securing in place.
Rather than hemming all around the arm, I prefer to sew through the layers only along the side seams. I "stitch in the ditch" for about one inch, to keep the fold in place. Do the same on both side seams. This is enough to keep the fold in place on fitted gloves and I like that there isn't a seam showing on the outside.
That's it! Your gloves are all ready to go!
You can make them long or short, fitted or loose, solid colored or printed.
I thought I was going to get an awesome picture of the gloves on my teen with his inflatable costume but it turns out that he wants to keep his costume a surprise for now. I can respect that.
If you have any questions, comments, or questions about this tutorial, please come ask in our sewing community on Facebook! You can also message directly through the Customer Support tab here on the website.
Happy Sewing!
Outtakes:
I turn around for one minute and Mr. Emmett the cat arrives to "help." Maybe he wants a costume too?
