Gloves and Catsuits

Sooo... I have decided that I want to make a pair of kind of gothy vinyl gloves. I am not sure why... I just really wanna. I have a ton of vinyl fabric that a guy gave me. I have already made parts of Halloween costumes with it, and a sweet roller derby skirt for back when I was a doomsdame... you know, before I had a baby and got FAT. I would totally love another skirt, or some sweet vinyl pants but I will wait to make that sort of thing until I lose some more of this baby fat.

I want to make something like this white pair, only in black vinyl, with lace lining the ruffled top part. I would possibly also add a heart or something cute to the top of the hand. The pretty gloves pictured here are from The Victorian Trading Company. Adam and I actually get thier catologue and they have lots of fun stuff, suitable for the Polite Ladies Rollerderby Society, as well as some very cool steampunk accessories. http://www.victorian-gifts.com/index.html

I also think I want to use some of it to make victorian style bolero. Like this one, which is available-just by chance- on etsy. Of course again it would be black vinyl and have probably white lace lining. Mostly because I have a lot of white lace fabric. Though, if I had some red plaid I think that lining it in that would look pretty awesome. Oh, and that shrug is from this store: http://bonzie.etsy.com

Anyway, the bolero is no probley. Easy easy... But I am a bit intimidated by the gloves! I have never made gloves and I am very tempted to buy a comercial pattern... but I am enough of a design snob that I think I should be able to draft a pettern myself... but then there's the thumb. Fucking opposable thumbs. I have no idea how to draft a thumb. I know it will be kind of like drafting sleeve patterns, but I cant drape anything on to my thumb to make sure the fit is right... and how to I slope the curve??? Not only that, but there are surprisingly few resources out there that show you how to make gloves and glove patterns. I did find a pretty good resource. There is a dude that is a catsuit enthusiest. I don't mean that he likes hot women in catsuits, he likes making and wearing catsuits. I have not really figured out his facination. A few of his suits are for cycling, and one of them appears to be a superhero costume, but several of them are Zentai suits. That means they are suits that cover the entire body. I had never heard of Zentai before yesterday so I looked it up. It appears to be both a performance art movement and a strange fetish. I don't know which one the guy at stretchy.org uses his catsuits for, but I am seriously thankful for his efforts because between his youtube tutorial and his several versions of glove pattern drafting instructions I think I may have gained the confidence to try making my first pair of gloves.

Yay for catsuits.