Both the 'roo and 'ragon costume I am hoping to complete pre-CFEast are
going to have 4-fingered hands. Any general comments on this? I
imagine the ring and pinki fingers go into the '4th' finger, but what
about padding, and getting the fingers to be uniformly shaped?

I've got a couple of sets of toon gloves from Disneyland, which are your basic toony 4-fingered deals. They're designed so that your middle and ring fingers go together, which wasn't the way I expected them to work, but which seems to be easier to deal with than putting your ring finger and pinky together. In my oh-so-humble opinion, it's harder to make a pattern with the pinky and ring finger held together, because then you have to try to fit an extra-wide finger between the index finger & the pair (assuming you're trying to make them the same width). On the other hand (so to speak), if you put your middle two fingers together, you can use the open space on either side of your hand to get extra room to widen the index and pinky fingers to match the middle.

___

Not five or four fingered, but three instead. I wished to match the appearance of Vicky Wyman's characters (equine) with the slender three finger set up. I had no clue how to do this myself, having never seen a pattern for anything like that before. I'm glad I didn't ask around and be told it couldn't be done! I made myself a set by tracing my own fingers and leaving what I thought would be enough room for sewing seams or flaps. Okay, they worked. Sorta. That was out of fun fur. That was too thick and clumsy looking. Each finger looked the same in size and shape. That wouldn't do for my equine morph!

Well, how do real gloves come assembled? Aha! Let's take a trip to the store and get a set of inexpensive gloves (US$.99) and take them apart for patterns! And that's what we did. They fit me fine, so if I followed their pattern and modify it for a three fingered hand, I should be okay. I made the new gloves out of sweatshirt material, with the fuzzy side out. Gives a nice smooth yet fuzzy look. And I can still grasp things with it. One of my big goals was to be able to still be able to sketch and write while wearing the costume. I made up the gloves following their pattern, but left off the elastic band deciding to sew on and re-use theirs since it fit me. Tried them on and wowzers! They fit! Snugly too! It's the 'vulcan' salute position of your fingers in pairs with the thumb separate. I can go for days with my hands like that, naturally being able to separate those fingers and control them well. The gloves really help that part out. Why so short? I have leather gauntlets I made up to help hide the seam from glove to furry arm. Let's the material slide at that point unseen. Plus it looks really cool.

From: “Wien, Robert”
Subject: FL: additional glove pattern sites

Here's 2 more sites I found concerning glove patterns/making your own gloves on the Internet:

http://www.florilegium.org/ - Check under Accessories, then gloves.

http://www.glove.org

From: Robert Goodwin (boogi)
Subject: FL: Making paws from a jersey work glove pattern

Go here to view the page including pics, on the below paw plans - http://www.chameleon.net/~boogi/paws03.htm

Thought I might share this with everyone after I played with a jersey work glove, taking it apart and using that as a paw pattern when I was out of town for Thanksgiving. I wrote it up for someone else, but since they're on the list…

Most stores will have these cheap jersey work gloves that are GREAT patterns to make your paws with. These cost around 99 cents at its cheapest, all the way to an overpriced $3. Carefully take them apart, trace out on the fur, then cut out. This will make way-oversized fingers, if you use it the way it is. If you measure your fingers at the base and top, as well as the length from bottom to top, adding on 1/2“ for seam allowances, you will get a good-fitting 5-digit paw.

However, the only drawback of these particular gloves is that they use 4 pieces, if you don't count the wrist part. There's two pieces that go along the back of your hand, for the two middle fingers. This will make three seams along the back of your hand in my original design.

Take the main part of the taken-apart glove, and smooth it out on the fur fabric. The other two pieces you have are the finger pieces, so put that on both sides of the pattern, and trace out, giving extra for around the arms. Flip up the thumb piece, and trace that partially. Trace out between the fingers also.

Remove everything, then move the thumb 1/2 inch into the palm and trace it. This is to allow for better movement of the thumb. It won't move around easily if it were on the other side. Then cut everything out, giving extra for going up to the elbows and the fingers. One final piece you will want to trace and cut out is the thumb piece add a little extra width and length to the lower part, for those who have large hands.

Now measure your pointing finger between the first joint and the top of the finger, and between the second joint and knuckle. Also measure from the bottom of the finger to the top of the finger. Then mark the area on the fabric and trim, then sew. Continue sewing til you get partway up to the second finger. Again, measure your finger as mentioned above, then mark, trim, and sew. You will then end in the middle of your hand. Continue on as above for the next two fingers. Remember to add on 1/2” for seam allowance at all times.

Do not start on the seam for the back of the hand yet. Take your thumb piece, and start sewing, starting at the base til you get to where it starts the curving shape at the top. Then measure your thumb between the first joint and top, and first joint and base, then trim. Sew til you get to the base of the other side of the thumb. Trim the excess and then sew that final seam.

You now have the seam for the back of the hand. With your thumb in your palm, measure around your hand, including the base of the thumb. You will want to keep that same length til just beyond the wrist, so that it's not so hard to put on. You can make this as long as you want, going to the elbow, or higher. You must allow for elbow movement also, otherwise you'll be blowing the elbow seam left and right.

The nice thing is that this makes a very nice formfitting paw that allows you to pick up things, attach claws and pads.

With a bit of modification, this can easily allow you to make 3 and even 4 digit paws. I've seen WhiteHorse's 3-digit paws (what do you call them when he's got them on? [chuckles]), and they're quite nice.

From: Chilly Mouse Mousie
Subject: FL: Steps on making paw gloves….

Paw Gloves Steps written by Erika Leigh Rosengarten aka Chilly Mouse Mousie

Boogi gave me the wonderful idea for this, so want to credit him also.

Go to Walmart, Kmart, or somewhere that you can get a cheap $1 or $2 (mine were $2) thin fabric gardening gloves. Mine were called “Jersey gloves”. From there, turn one of the gloves (you only need to do this with one glove) inside out and trace the stitch line with a black pen.

Afterwards, carefully take the stitches out. Around the border of the lines you traced, place ONE layer of masking tape over the lines. One layer so you can see through the tape. When the entire border is covered, cut along the line. Cover the entire pattern piece with many layers of masking tape until it is nice and stiff.

Where the fingers form along the knuckles (top of the hand, the the fingers that are on the palm), number the fingers #1 to 4. 1 bring the pinky, and 4 the index finger. Place a big black dot on the back of each finger to show that this side will be placed faced down on the fabric. Cut a straight line seperating them off the hand. Number also the same fingers on the palm pattern. Do not cut these off.

At this point, choose your fabric. I cut sections of my pattern apart to make paw pads. I chose vinyl for that. (leather is more durable). You have an option to make the paw all the same color, the palm and top of the hand two different colors, or make the fingers different colors than the rest and such.

The pattern pieces are then placed on the fabric to be traced. If you are used black matterial, white prisma markers are good to use. If you are tracing onto light colored material (such as white or sky blue), lightly trace on it with a ball point pen or a blueish colored pencil.

From there, cut the pieces out, and sew how you normally sew. It's that simple. This pattern is nice because the separate thumb involved makes it comfortable to wear, unless your are using fake or real fur and it's 90 degrees F outside. :)

From: YinWolf, explaining Pawgloves on a budget;
Right. I've been asked to detail how I did my paws, since they were very cheap to assemble. So, here we go.

First off, so you can see what the end result was, look at the paw picture.

I began by looking for a pattern. Several fursuiting places suggested getting a set of cheap work gloves that fit and taking them apart to get a pattern. This resulted in a bit of a search as a.) I have very small hands and work gloves tend to come in large sizes, and b.) I was being picky about what kind of pattern I wanted. Many work glove patterns have excessive seams all over, or are overly complicated with lots of separate pieces. I finally found a pair of relatively cheap leather gloves, for $3.99. This was, other than the fur, my biggest expense in making these gloves, but they fit perfectly, and had only three pieces.

You can probably skip that step yourself and find a glove pattern somewhere. One of these days I may find a good way to scan in the pattern I used, but it's bigger than my scanner, so…

Next was getting the fur cloth. I found that easily enough, as I wanted short white fur. Common as mud. I had several selections, and ended up with some very soft but fairly cheap stuff from Hancock fabrics. It was $7 a yard, and I got half a yard of it, though I only used half that. The other half I'm saving for the matching footpaws. Anyhow, $3.50 worth of fabric later I was ready to start.

I took one glove apart and traced around it to get the pattern, making sure, of course, that the fur grain ran the right way. (It had to run sideways on the thumb, and on the undersides of the fingers, as those pieces folded around and would have had half the fur running backwards if I'd tried to line it up to run straight, but of course the fur along the tops of the fingers and down the arms is what matters.) I extended the arms to reach the elbow, rather than stopping at the wrist as the glove pattern did. I wanted to be able to wear these under a shirt and give the impression the fur keeps on going up. I may add on more fabric later so they reach my shoulders and I can wear T-shirts… Fabric cut, sewing was the next step. 99 cents for needles, $1.10 for heavy white thread. I sewed these by hand. Sewing machines are great for big stuff, but I'm too clumsy on one to do fiddly little details like fingers. (Contrary to the attitude of many I don't find hand sewing tedious. My stitch isn't perfect, but it's good enough, and I like sewing. It occupies my hands while my mind wanders.)

The pattern shows where you sew what to where. Attaching the thumb was probably the trickiest thing, but even that wasn't too hard. I left little gaps in the seam at the tips of each finger for the claws to go through. Next time I might do that a bit differently, as it looks slightly odd from up close. Also, the thing I thought was a washable fabric marker was a bit more permanent, so the edges are kinda orangy-red, and they show around the claws. I swear to use chalk next time. Argh.

That over, it was time to put on the details. Flame Song, the character these are for, is a firecat, so red-orange fire-like stripes were needed. I bought a dye pen (I love those things!) and I already had a red sharpie. Time will tell which one washes better… Coloring fur with a dye marker is a bit time-consuming, and it uses up the dye fast, but it still was the only way to get the effect I wanted. I had a firecat tail made for me, and not only was the orange the wrong shade, but they guy had /cut/ stripes from the orange fabric and sewn them in between the strips of white. It's starting to fall apart and it looks funny, both because of all the seams.

Anyhow, the dye pen cost $2.50. Not too bad, really. I think there's enough left in it to color the paws too, when I get to them.

Next I needed claws. Sculpy to the rescue! I had found some on sale just a bit ago, and knowing I was going to be doing this, I bought it. A regular sized pack, only 99 cents. Heeee. I sculpted a complete set, fitting them to the tips of my fingers, though it turns out the gloves fit loosely enough that the claws bases don't quite touch my fingers. I'll make the pattern a tiny bit shorter in the fingers next time. I also have sculpy left over for the foot claws. I feel so frugal…

Lastly was pawpads. Here's where I worried about getting into more expensive stuff. I've heard of doing them from leather, which admittedly I could get scraps of cheap, but then I'd have to dye it pink. (I ordinarily loathe the color pink, but for a white firecat, pink pads are a must.) Plus sewing leather is a pain! So there's the option of using liquid latex and molding pads. Nicer, but possibly very expensive. I went to the craft store, and sure enough, latex molding stuff was like $10 a container. Ick. Plus it was translucent, so I'd have to make it opaque somehow, and color it pink. No go.

Then I had my inspiration! My parents had just built a house, so we've got all kinds of construction junk lying around. And do you know what else is made of latex? Caulk! It's almost exactly the same thing as the expensive stuff I was looking at. For free. *grin* I just added a tiny bit of acrylic red paint that I already had, and voila! Pink liquid latex. I used some old modeling clay to make molds of my fingertips, and of the palm pads, and then poured the caulk in.

This turned out to not quite work, as the first batch was full of bubbles, and I didn't wait long enough for it to cure. (It takes a week…) So I tried again, this time kinda painting it into the molds first, to make sure no bubbles got in. That worked great.

One week later I glued the pads on, glued the claws in place, and I was set to go. (Well, 24 hours after that when the glue set I was…) One bottle of “OK to wash it” glue, $2.50.

Expenses:
gloves $3.99
cloth $3.50
needles $0.99
thread $1.10
dye pen $2.50
sculpy $0.99
glue $2.50

total: $15.57

Admittedly, you won't all be able to get the same stuff free, or on sale, or whatever, but here's the thing: watch sales, look for deals, check remnant bins, do all that and you'll do all right.

You can e-mail me at sparkling_image at hotmail dot com if you've got any comments or questions.

From: TopFox
TopFox's paws had the fur going down towards the fingers. The fur looked darker because it WAS darker. I had two colors. Dark grey with light silver tips (body) and pure black (paws). Using two colors helps hide seams on such removable parts as paws and heads.

I also recommend using t-shirt material for the palms. Fur doesn't breath well and folks with pure fur gloves really sweat up a storm. This is not only uncomfortable, but can make it harder to get undressed. The light cotton material breaths well. It's an old Disneyland trick from the 70s. The smooth cotton also looks more like pads than fur does. The idea of starting with cotton gloves and gluing the fur on is a good one.

From: Nightsky Bluewyrm
Subject: FL: snow leopard glove version one

I'm starting to put together a Snow Leopard costume suitable for LARPing in. While I'd love a fursuit, I need to actually spend some time running around in game trying to figure out what the costume will need to do. Additionally, I haven't got a lot of time before the first game!

At any rate, one of the things I am doing to help myself look more ouncey is to wear a pair of opera-length gloves painted in a snowleopardy way. There's a quick and dirty scan of one glove at:

http://us.vclart.net/vcl/Artists/Nightsky-Bluewyrm/snowleopardglove.jpg

Local pic of above, if above server is down.

Since these gloves are going to see a LOT of use and abuse, I figured they should just be quick, not labor-intensive and using expensive fur. So I decided to go with the CATS-style of costuming.

I used “Jones Tones” fabric paint for the main grey area, and painted it onto white gloves. Then I used a watered-down black to paint the spots, and 'outlined' them with a fabric marker.

The paint left them a little stiff, so I'm going to wash them gently, via machine, in cold water (lingerie bag) and see if that helps. (I had to wait 72 hours for the paint to set)

I opened the seams at the finger tips and turned them in, and then hemmed them. This way I can use my fingertips. I'll paint my fingernails black to kind of complete the illusion. I'm also thinking of making up my finger tips with white makeup. (I wish I could just airbrush paint onto them for the weekend, makeup will probably smear off.) Also, I put some elastic into the casing at the opening of the glove, to help prevent them from scooting down my arm.

Better pix will probably come later on. And hopefully I'll figure out a way to make a sort of 'lightweight' fursuit suitable for running around in the woods in. Although in winter a warm one would be good!

Hope someone finds this info useful!