Last Year's Project -- Wool Knit Gloves

I have a number of projects that I finished at the end of 2013 --  and never got around to blogging about.  I'm going to try and catch up one project at a time, especially since my current projects are quilts.  And of course, those can take a really long time from start to finish.  At least they do for me.

First up: these wool knit gloves.  Youngest Son has big hands, but short fingers.  Which means that he can't even slip his hand into a boys' size glove, and the fingers of men's gloves are just too long.

So I figured it was about time a took a serious look at Butterick 5370.  These are from their Making History, um, historical collection.  I made Green Pepper's fingerless glove pattern a few years ago and found glove making an interesting challenge, but this Butterick pattern was the first one I came across for gloves with the actual entire fingers.  I had to have it, if only to adapt the Green Pepper fingerless pattern to a full finger pattern.  I noticed from their website (just now, as a matter of fact) that they, too, have a  full-finger glove pattern -- Note to self: get that one ASAP.

Turns out that such radical alterations weren't needed.  The Butterick glove pattern runs from a 7" hand to 9" hand, 1/2" inch larger than the Green Pepper.


I started out with the smallest size, thinking to just test the pattern and the construction challenges.  And when I say challenges, I mean challenges.  The most significant being 1/8 inch seam allowances.  Getting your fingers close enough to the needle to work with seam allowances that tiny is not for the faint of heart.

The next interesting part is the crazy pattern pieces.  I kid you not.  I am in awe of whichever genius however many hundred years ago dreamed up this system of hand coverings.

For those of you who've never seen a glove pattern before, here you go:

The top left piece is the thumb pattern.  It is folded in half and stitched along the top portion.  It is then sewn into the main piece (bottom right) into the hole you see cut out there.  That's right. It is sewn in circular sleeve style.  Very cool.  The bottom left pieces are the finger gussets -- those are the pieces that attach the top of the fingers to the bottoms (the palm side, so to speak) and each of them are a different length.  They definitely have to be matched perfectly, there is little room for error.

I started my sample glove using a heavy weight wool knit that I bought years ago.  It has a really strange surface, almost like melton, but very hairy and very stretchy.  I don't remember why I bought it (I'm sure I had a reason) and I almost didn't keep it (internet shopping can be so ... entertaining sometimes, and this piece was so not what I was expecting) but I hate to give up any piece of wool that comes my way.  Especially a wool knit.  Even if it is a little strange.

The fabric is thick, stretchy, and wool.  Sounds like gloves to me.

Cutting out the pieces accurately was the next challenge.  The fabric has such a springy surface that the pieces just did not want to hold still.  My pattern weights we too big for the gusset pieces (as you can see, they're not even an inch wide) and not heavy enough to really hold the pieces down properly.  I managed somehow (obviously) and got the first sample glove cut out.

Surprisingly, the instructions were rather straightforward and not that hard to follow (of course I've done this before with Green Pepper, so that probably gives me an advantage).  And like most of Butterick's instructions, I only followed most of them.  I didn't like their fingertip sewing technique -- it always seems like Butterick makes things more difficult to construct than they need to be.  I always read all the way through their instructions first, and take notes where I'm going to do my own thing.



Specifically, I attached the gussets to the top of the glove first, and then stitched the gusset to the bottom of the glove, stitching the two fingertip portions together, and then stitched down the next finger (after checking for the next finger's gusset alignment, of course).  Sound confusing?  It is.  Butterick's way was worse.  They had you stitch the fingertip portions together and then try to sew the gussets in.  Stupid.  If you're really interested, I can draw you a picture, but only if someone asks :o)

All that said, my sample glove was done in less than an hour.  And to my utter astonishment, it fit Youngest Son perfectly.  It looks like a big ole bear paw.  I love it!  Needless to say, I hurry up sewed the companion, hemmed them both, and counted the experiment a success.  I look forward to trying these again.  I'm pretty sure I can do a better job next time.