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More Gloves? and customer opinion poll

January 11th, 2013 at 05:12 pm

Maybe I'm crazy but I want to make long fancy special occasion gloves sometime. In fact, this started at the thrift store where I found a pair of plain white elbow length vintage gloves for about $4.

I don't know what it is about gloves and me lately!!

Cross my doing bead and sequin work on knit gloves for the past couple years, and the jeweled eggs I'm making more recently and you get...

Jeweled, silk flowered, laced and embellished formal gloves?

Right now there are 3 gloves on my website:

Text is Green and Orange Pop Lemon-Lime Eye Openers and Link is https://www.etsy.com/listing/107897324/green-knit-gloves-with-orange-pop
Green and Orange Pop Lemon-Lime Eye Openers

Text is Red White and Blue Baby! and Link is https://www.etsy.com/listing/119074535/red-knit-gloves-with-blue-heart-trim
Red White and Blue Baby!

Text is Princess Alert Mittens and Link is https://www.etsy.com/listing/119000389/pink-knit-gloves-with-white-feather-trim
Princess Alert Mittens

I did a search on Etsy for fancy white gloves, such as for wedding, graduation, quinceanera, etc. And there isn't alot out there. Mostly those fingerless lace arm thingys, and vintage pairs. Hmmm, is this a good sign as perhaps an unfufilled market area?

Anyway, the big problem I'm thinking is how to get a reliable supply of plain elbow length (or perhaps midi length) gloves. I love the vintage, but obviously this avenue is not reliable, NOR inexpensive. Sheesh.

I looked into wholesale especially at the LA garment district. The supply is not exactly great quality, mostly stretch polyester. And I am not sure I want to do the Made in China thing.

Soooo. The next idea is to make them myself. Good in concept, harder to execute. I am a reasonably experienced seamstress. There are two basic ways to sew gloves. One really easy, one more detailed and time intensive.

Fitted Glove


This style has the thumb in the palm area and gussets at the fingers. Best for cotton, satin, and fabrics with a small stretch.

Simple Glove


This style has the thumb on the side. Easy peasy. Best for knit, lycra, and 2 way stretch fabric I presume.


My goal is to use fabric with some weight such as a cotton/spandex mix. Or maybe full on lycra. Heavy weight lycra is not cheap. Anyway, the material must be substantial enough to hold sewn on flowers, crystals and decorations. I don't want alot of puckering at the fingers or thumb either.

But I don't want to become frustrated with a hard sewing job. The labor needs to be small enough so the end price is about $50/pair.

So which do you prefer?

4 Responses to “More Gloves? and customer opinion poll”

  1. wowitsawonderfullife Says:
    1357951951

    I think your knitted gloves are fantastic, creative, colourful.

    The thing about the fancy gloves is that while they would be perfect for a wedding, most weddings are not in the winter. What about a lovely lace elbow to wrist or elbow to first knucle kind of thing so the fingers are exposed for a ring?

    Regarding the gloves to the elbow, there must be someone out there who has boxes of these things in storage. It will be cheaper than making them and those older products are so well made.

  2. pretty cheap jewelry Says:
    1357956180

    Oh yes, smart! That fingerless type is the one that is all over ETsy, now I know why (duh, sometimes I am not on the ball). Hmmm. I am thinking this would have to be more lightweight for graduation, easter, etc. Thanks for the angle.

    The vintage are wonderful, agree and must be why I keep snatching them up from the thrift (I have a black pair too with beads just for myself). Seems they are a pair here and a pair there. If they are a few bucks I can't resist. Same goes for the old really nice silk scarves. Oy.

  3. snafu Says:
    1357967880

    1st check out demand, do you know any high school kids? It would help to have them tweet/FB friends to see if there's a market!

    2nd or concurrently, research established glove manufacturers in China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Brazil [leather]. They'll have on-line brochures. You'll need a 'buyer' or 3rd party because due to cultural differences and practices, a contract is rarely worth the paper it's written on. You cannot pay until you have the merchandise in the hands of an agent.

  4. Jerry Says:
    1359379304

    I'm not exactly your target market (straight male -- my gloves are mainly for ice hockey, baseball, and outdoors-type stuff), but I will give my two cents and say that I LOVE when a woman wears fancy gloves like these. They lead to a very classic and beautiful look. I hope that your work on these is worthwhile and that you have some insurance of selling a lot of them... good luck!
    Jerry

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