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.)

Then I put it all together, referring back to the original gloves to make sure that things went in the right places. 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. (This later proved to be a mistake. White fur gets dirty really easily, so after one wearing they needed washing. I hand-washed them very carefully, but the sharpie washed out completely, and the dye pen got a lot lighter. Also, the sharpie actually started coming off and smearing while being worn.) 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 badly sewn seams.

Anyhow, the dye pen cost $2.50. Not too bad, really. There was enough left to color the foot paws too.

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 want 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.