Introduction: Buckskin Work Gloves!

About: I'm an electrical engineer whos always looking for the next 'project'. Whatever that may be.

Hello everyone!  This is my instructable on how to make yourself a brand new set of working gloves for around the house, garden, or farm.  I had some extra buckskin to work with so I used that.  Buckskin can be hard to find (not hard to make though!) so obviously this whole process could be done with leather from the store or any other fabric material you have laying around. 

I'm not much of a sewer/stitcher so this was a bit of a journey for me.  I would like to give a big shout out to Icetirgris for her instructable  https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Gloves/  it really helped me get some ideas on how to start.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials Needed:
Buckskin Material or something similar
Duct Tape
rubber surgical gloves
Heavy Thread
Velcro

Tools Needed:
Speed Stitcher or sewing machine
sissors
knife
piece of wood or something else you can poke.... in this case I used an old cook book.

Step 2: How to Use the Speed Stitcher

The speed stitcher!  So to save time, I have included a picture of the included speed stitcher instructions.  I don't have a vice handy so what did is I laid the two pieces of material flat on a piece of board (or an old cook book in this case) and then I simply punched the speed stitcher through the layers into the book. 

Step 3: Getting the Pattern to Match Your Hand.

Ok so I won't take credit for this idea, there is another wonderful instructable that describes using this method for creating a very form fitting glove.  But the basic process is, with a rubber medical glove on, duct tape your entire hand!  Make sure to get in between the figures.  Once this is done, with a marker or pen, draw out where you want your materials pieces to be joined.   If you follow the pattern I have shown below it is called the 'Gunn Style'  glove.  If you look at any kind of work glove it has this style... not sure why.  

Step 4: Cut the Pattern Off Your Hand!

Self explainatory!  Be safe when cutting!

Step 5: Draw Out the Pattern Onto Your Material.

Now is the time to transfer your 'duct tape hand pattern' to the actual material.  Some things to be wary of.

make sure to add about a 1/4 inch of extra material anywhere you are sewing. 
Make sure to cut the finger bases about 1/4 to 1/2 inch longer.
Check out the thickness of the material and place your patterns accordingly.  On this patter you can see my middle and ring finger pattern is next to the edge of the hide.  This area (I found out later) is very this compared to the rest of the hide.  This was a no-no.

If you have the time, you will get better overall fitting results if you sacrifice a t-shirt and make gloves using them.  It will allow you too see if it's a good fit before you get into your nice buckskin material.

Step 6: Cut Out Your Final Glove Material.

This step is pretty self explainatory.  Just cut it out!  Don't run with scissors! lol

Step 7: Start Putting It Together.

Pin the glove together in spots that you know are supposed to line up.  You can do as many as you want, but I stayed with the tips of the figures, the bases of the fingers and one point on each side of the hand. (One just above the base of your thumb and one directly opposite of  it.)

This is optional but I felt that it made the rest of the sewing process much easier and made thing line up better in the end.

Step 8: Start Stitching It All Together.

Now that you have it tentatively put together.  It will be easier when you stitch/sew it to know how it should look.  The big secret I think with this glove style is that each finger will be kind of like a mini moccasin.  So the bottom or palm side of each fingers fabric will be bending all around the finger which might give some wringles at the top.  But they dissapear once turned right side out.

Step 9: Things to Think About / Look For.

I know I mentioned this before but with buckskin it is hard to tell sometimes which side is the 'out' side.  Other materials you use it might be easier to tell.  So when putting it together double and triple check to make sure you have the surfaces laid out in the right direction.

The base of the middle finger and the ring fingers are the trickiest parts if you ask me.  To help, what you want to do is first stitch the outside line of the finger.  The one that starts at the base, goes to the tip of your finger and then back to the base on the other side.  Do that first, and do it seperately.  When I did my right glove I tried to just continue stitching when I finished one finger onto the next finger.  Why not right?  Well it ended up making the base ring of the finger too tight around my finger. 

Next with the middle and ring finger, when you start stitching on the palm side of the finger bases, what you want to do is start in the middle and work you way towards the pinky finger, and then start at the middle again and work you way to your index finger.  If you start at the index and move your way accross the hand.  It will constrict the holes on the inside that your fingers have to pass through.

When drawing out your final pattern  here are two things to think about and look for. 
1) Make sure to cut a little deeper in the finger grooves, this will give you a better fit. 
2) If you are working with buckskin or leather, keep a close eye on the thickness of the material.  It may be very thinner or thicker in different areas.  Usually for work gloves you want the thick part to be the palm of the hand.

Step 10: Add the Belt Loop. (Optional)

Ok so now we are going to accessorize the glove a little by adding a wrist loop to keep it tight.  Please note:  this step is optional and there are many ways of doing it too.

To hold the loop I felt the easiest solutioin would be to use velcro.  Some fashion of buckle or button could also be used.  Use your imagination!  The placement is on your wrist right below the joint is were your wrist and hand bend.

Now also I have included some other gloves I found at the store and how they did their velcro strap.  Looking back this would have been better because it uses less material and I believe it would create less folds in the fabric around the wrist.  (Too many folds make the glove feel awkward)

Step 11: And Your Done!

And there you go!  A brand new pair of work gloves to use around the farm or garden!  While these gloves are not perfect by any means I think that anyone who uses this instructable can learn from my successes and failures to make a great glove for really cheap!

Final Thoughts and Ideas:
As it turned out the two most difficult parts of this glove were getting the bases of the middle and ring fingers to fit properly, and also to get a fitting pattern for the wrist portion of the glove. 

The base circumference of the middle and ring fingers, were tricky.  It requires sewing it correctly and also eyeballing how much extra you need to cut out from the original finger pattern to allow space for your fingers.  Luckily this part can be fixed if done wrong by simply cutting out more, and restitching it afterward.

As for the wrist area, I felt that by staying with the 'duct tape hand pattern' you get a wrist circumference that is too tight and impossible to get the glove on.  But during my journey I never really figured out a pattern to made a good wrist wrap that will allow the glove opening to be big enough for a hand to pass through, yet small enough so that it does not wrinkle up once a wrist strap is tightened.  Perhaps someone wiser could show me. 

Lastly I would like to mention that this is just a basic design that has been and can be modified by others.  I noticed with other work gloves that the palm area right below the thumbs often have overlapping leather becasue it allows for better grip.  Also for the same reason, I have seen gloves that add in extra layers of leather by just sewing another one on.  So what I'm saying is, I would highly advise you to get out there and look at different styles and figure out how you want to make yours unique.  Have fun!

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