So you want beat eachother up, but safely? This ible will guide you in making your own padded training gauntlets!

The first thing to get busted up beyond recognition will probably be your unprotected fingers. Since you can't hold your sword with broken fingers, beter make sure to protect each and every knuckle!

These gaunlets only take a few hours to make at most and can be constructed for less than 10 € / $.

Step 1: Tools & Materials

Alright you don't need much but here are the essentials and some *extras*:

Tools:

Scissors

Marker / chalk (chalk works better on dark fabric)

Needle

(Safety)pins

*Thread cutter*(scissors / knife will work but these make it a bit easier)

*Pliers*

*Chainmaille ring making equipment*

*Sewing machine* (I would have used mine but it broke a while ago and I haven't been able to fix it)

Materials:

Old ovenmitt

Thick cloth (try to find some that matches your mitt, I had some sturdy cloth but it was the wrong colour)

Thread

*Chainmaille / wire*

Step 2: Taking Apart the Ovenmitt

Lets start simple, just take the ovenmitt and pull it inside out. While its inside out you can expose the seam a little easier, do so and use you threadcutters / scissors / knife to tear apart the seam. Your ovenmitt might have a little eyelet (one of those rings to hang it on a hook), you can just throw this away.

When you take apart the seam you'll end up with 2 ovenmitts halves, they might (like mine) be connected by a rim at the bottom, just cut this and move on to the next step!

Step 3: Making the Inside

Take one of the halves from the ovenmitt and lets figure out what side you want on the inside. On my ovenmitt there is a big logo on the outside and it is fairly its fairly damaged and greasy, so I chose to put it inside out.

Lay out your fabric flat, if you use fabric with two different sides make sure the side you want on the outside is on top. (Mine came from an old curtain so some spots are sunbleached)

Place the ovenmitt halve ontop of the fabric so that the (to be) outside is towards the fabric.Take your marker, or even better, chalk, and trace the overmitt halve. Cut out the trace and go on to the next step.

Step 4: Pinning and Sewing

Take the piece of cloth and hemm the edge closest to your wrist, this is the only exposed edge so the others dont need to be hemmed.

To make the gaunlet one complete piece start out by pinning the two pieces together along the edge, next create a seam to connect them. I like to add another seam in the corner between the thumb and the hand because this is where most of the stress will be.

Step 5: Finishing Up and Optional Chainmaille

Now that the sewing is done flip the whole thing "inside out" again so the seams are on the inside and you can wear the finished piece!

.....or you could put in a little more effort and make it a bit better looking; take / make some chainmaille, I won't explain how to make chainmaille as there are a ton of diy chainmaille pages online. Make it into a rectangle the size of your gauntlett without the thumb and a small piece that covers the thumb. Make a small rectangle that fills up the exposed remainder of the gaunlett and to connect the main part with the thumb piece.

To secure the maille to the gauntlett I first pinned it down along the edges, then, using needle and thread, I fastened it by looping the thread a few times per ring. Keep this going all around the edges, you might need to alter the chainmaille a bit, at the fingertips I rounded it out a bit before sewing.

When all seams are sewn and all maille fastened you can beat eachother up without losing your fingers!

(seriouly though be safe if you intend to practice full contact sports)