Hi all, small update - playing with glove concepts...
I began testing concepts for the gloves. I had an idea on what I wanted for the gloves and decided to run a test to see how it would turn out. I'll go ahead and say that these will not be the final gloves (and I'll go into why later in the process), but I wanted to post how these gloves were made.I knew I wanted to combine the red faux leather and the navy spandex. First, I wanted to keep all the fabrics cohesive throughout the project and, second, I needed to make sure I had a sufficient amount of flexibility to move. I began, as most gloves begin, with the thumb.I traced the general thumb pattern onto the spandex and then traced it onto the red faux leather. I then cut the red to the pattern I wanted, lightly misted it with Super 77 to keep it in place and stitched it down.
I then trimmed the blue away, cut the piece to the original pattern and stitched it. Here's how it turned out.
Next, I did the same process with the hand. Once the hand section was assembled, I stitched the thumb in. Here are pics of the glove flat and pinned over my hand at this point.
Now, here's the really fun part: the fourchettes. Fourchettes are the little strips between the fingers that provide depth as well as width. This is where lots of practice comes into this process and where most people get very frustrated.Here's my short-version process:
- I cut a 3/4" strip for the fourchettes the length of the fabric (with stretch across - narrow - not lengthwise).
- Start at the upper part of the glove and go finger-by-finger and trim the strip as you go. Cut more when needed.
- Go slow. You are using a 1/8" (at most) seam allowance so walk your machine when you need more control.
- The most challenging parts are at the fingertip (easing in the top fingertip and the end of the fourchette) and the ends of the fingers (near the knuckles). Practice easing these tight curves and edges. Stretch fabrics are easier to manipulate that non (yeah, so the red was a lot of fun for this).
- When you're ready to stitch the underside of the glove, pin at the fingertips and the ends (near the knuckles) and make sure you pin the ends near the knuckles accurately or you'll get a lot of twist in the fingers.
That's a very broad-strokes description, but it really does just take practice. The more you make gloves, the better and faster you'll get - and the more you'll develop the process that works best for you.So, here's a pic of the fourchettes sewn to the top of the glove and some pics of the glove sewn together on my hand and on the form with the costume.
As I mentioned above, I'm not going to use these as the finals. I'm not completely happy with the shape of the fingers and the fit. It seems a bit too slim and 'isotoner' and I want to develop a more tactical-style glove. I have a pair of motocross gloves that I might deconstruct and use to pattern a new version. I do know that I don't want the fingerless version from the movie, but full gloves. Plus, the gauntlets will cover them almost to the knuckle, so I need to make sure they don't look too flimsy from the knuckle down.
All of that said, this is what costume design is all about - concepts, testing, building, back-to-one, building, back-to-one, and so forth.
More to come, cheers!
