Introduction: Custom Leather Archery Glove

About: I love making things from all places of the workshop. Love the community and love being a part of it!

Need a archery glove for a costume or a real use? Want it to fit like a glove? Here it is, a follow up tutorial from my leather quiver (check that out Here) how to make a custom leather archery glove that fits your hand!

Difficulty: easy..

Pretty Easy!You can choose to tool the leather or not


With just a few materials I made this awesome glove that would go with any archers or medieval costume.

This was designed as a follow up to complete an archers costume that incorporates my quiver, this glove and chest piece that i am still working on.

So without further ado lets get leather crafting!

Ps, If you liked the Instructable a vote would be nice, not compulsory =)

Step 1: Gather Materials

Materials, what makes or breaks a project! The overall cost for this project was $10 that was including leather and a punch. This project was made using offcuts that I found at our local garbage centre, they cost me $2:50.

I would recommend looking in any leftover bins at leather stores such as Tandy leather.

You will need:

  • Puch - Punching holes
  • Relatively sharp scissors
  • Measuring tape, make sure it is flexible
  • Paper (for the templates)
  • Bungee chord
  • Sticky tape or glue
  • A Button (Try to find one that is older styled to with the leather)
  • Needles
  • Sponge
  • Punches
  • Clothe to apply stain

Words in bold are only needed if you are tooling the leather

Step 2: Get Measuring!

To make sure your glove fits like a glove you or a friend will need to measure your hand. In total you will need 4 measurement on which the templates will be built on.


To start off draw a line on your wrist where the wrist strap will go. And draw another line 2cm in from your finger

(Check pictures for reference)

This will be the basis of your finger measurements.Then measure:

  1. Wrist Circumference + 3cm (1 inch)
  2. Index finger line to bottom wrist line
  3. Middle finger line to bottom wrist line
  4. Ring finger line to bottom wrist line

Step 3: Designing & Cutting the Templates

The glove is made up of 4 sections of leather. These templates will differ according to your hand size. This is we're you will us your measurements.


Once you have all the measurements you need to design your templates. The templates needed are not to complex and will only take you a minute. when you are done you should end up with 3 interesting looking capital T's and a rectangle.

After I had made a rough plan I made a much nicer set of templates that were square and even. I then proceeded to cut them out and mark the stitching.

Step 4: Cutting the Leather

Now onto the fun bit! Crafting the Leather.


The next step is to quite simply trace the templates onto the leather.

If you look at the pictures I have set out the templates so there is not much material wasted. Remember be environmentally friendly!

Step 5: Tooling the Leather, (optional)

The next thing i did to my glove was to make it unique and different to the others at the range. Using the 3 punches that came with the Tandy Leather starter kit I put a snake and a few symbols in it. I thought of the snake as the way the arrow shoots through the air.


There are many Instructables on tooling, heres just a 1.

  1. How to tool a simple purse.

For mine I didn't use a swivel knife, (I Don't have have one) Turned out alright without one,

Step 6: Staining the Leather

The Next step is to stain your leather, I don't really like the light colour of leather so I used Eco Flow to Stain it to a darker brown. Heres quickly how to stain your leather.

  1. Put your pad on the top of the your lid and tip some stain on..
  2. Rub generously into your leather
  3. one settled in rub over with a paper towl and let it dry

Note:, Wear gloves and cover surface when staining, it's really hard to get off when dry.Pink Gloves are not a necessity for this step, any colour can be used :-)

Step 7: Punching Stitching Holes and Sewing Fingers

Now assemble the glove!


When sewing up the finger holes, put then on your fingers for your personal perfect fit.

In this step the pictures are most important so check them out.

Step 8: Sew on the Button and Bungee Cord

The next step is to sew on the Button and and the bungee cord.To make the Bungee chord attach you need to make a slit that the knot will sit in.

Step 9: Step Back and Admire Your Work!

Now that it's done. Go cosplaying, Go shooting, Go Halloweening (is that a word?)

See you on the range!

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