This webpage contains instructions on how to make realistic, form fitting costume paw-gloves with five fingers, hard claws and rubber "paw pads". These paws are really good, the ones I have are pretty comfortable and so dexterous I can pickup a quarter off a flat surface while wearing them. They'd be an excellent detail on any realistic animal costume (fursuit). They can also be made without claws but might be less dexterous. This is a very complex pattern to draft and difficult to sew. I wouldn't suggest trying it unless you have some experience in these feilds.Please read all the instructions before beginning so you can plan ahead.
You will need:
The whole trick is in the paw pads. Instead of making rubber paw pads and gluing or sewing them to the surface of the glove there is an inner layer of stretch fabric. Your fingertips poke through and actually become the paw pads allowing you you retain much of your manual dexterity. After wearing them for a bit you even learn how to use the claws to help you grasp things.
The glove is made of 3 pieces, claws, inside and outside.
If you have trouble with some of my terminology it's mostly explained here.
To make the inside you need two way stretch spandex (not 4 way). It's important you get the two way stretch kind, the kind that will only stretch in one direction. If you get the type that stretches both vertically and horizontally it will be nearly impossible to get your hand into the completed paw-glove because the fabric keeps bunching up and getting in the way and making things generally miserable.
Please note that you're constructing this so the stretch of the fabric goes around, not longwise and you may want to make it a little tighter (5%-15%) near the forearm and wrist.
1) The first pattern to draft is the largest part of the inside glove. You start basically by tracing your hand, don't spread your fingers too far apart, maybe half an inch or less between each. These first parts are similar to making spandex gloves for a skinsuit or catsuit (instructions for that are here, check it out.)
2) Now it's basically the same as the skinsuit instructions but you exclude the thumb. You turn the fingertips into smooth half-circle curves and put very tiny curves in the space between your fingers. Then you connect each finger to the inside curve with straight lines.
3) Then, on the side opposite of the thumb you make a very slight curve basically corresponding to the cuve of your palm.
4) On the thumb side of the palm draw a short vertical line downward from the index finger and gently curve it outward. It should be as long as the space from the bottom of your index finger to where that membrane-flap-of-skin-thing attached to your thumb begins.
5) Now make a concave (inward) curve with a measure equal to half the round measure of your thumb at it's very widest point.
6) You mark the location of the wrist, lengthwise, from the base of the fingers and make a measure equal to half the circumference (round measure) of the wrist centered below the hand.
7) Now mark the entire length of the glove, if it's just wrist length, add an extra inch beyond the wrist, if it's up to the elbow, measure the distance from wrist to elbow and mark it as a central line down from the center of the hand. Find the round measure of your elbow and make a mark equal to half that centered on this line.
8) Just connect the lines from the wrist to the elbow (if you want a slightly better fit you can measure various points along the arm and change the round measure at each point.) make sure everything joins up so it resembles the diagram (the diagram doesn't show the bottom, just trust that it's a little longer and get's a little wider) and you have the first pattern piece (piece "A").
9)You will need a long strip of fabric called a gusset. Measure around each of the fingers, up and down and around the tips and cut a strip equal to the length of the the entire edge of all the fingers a half an inch across. Then cut each of its ends to a point. It should not stretch the long way.
You might want to sew now, making two of piece "A" with the gusset strip in between the fingers. This way you can put on the inner glove, without the thumb and get a better idea of how you need to make the thumb parts.
10) The next three pieces are for the thumb. Keep note of how they have to be cut in relation to the fabric or else the inner lining will be too constrictive. The first piece is for the back of the thumb. It's length is a little longer than that of your thumb. Near the top it's as wide as half the round measure of you thumb, tapering and curving slightly as to fit the thicker and thinner parts of your thumb. The bottom tapers pretty wide to then ends with a slight outward curve. The measure of this curve must be equal to the measure of the curve made in step 5 of piece "A". It won't have the same curviture, just the same length. Let's call the back of the thumb piece "B".
11) The second piece is for the front of your thumb, the top half of it can pretty much be traced from the top half of piece "B". Since this new piece will fit around the thick fleshy part between the thumb and the rest of your hand it has a "W" shape the accommodate. Figure out where the very base of your thumb is (so it's the same as piece "A" then figure out how far it is to the edge of the crescent between the thumb and other fingers. This'll be the length* of the inside part of the "W" (an inverse "V" if you want to think of it that way.) The outside lines correspond to the remaining length of the side of piece "B" so that the sides of both pieces should be of equal length, but not the same shape. And that's piece "C".
12) The final piece is small and simple, one side is an almost straight line equal to the measure of both the lines inside the "W" of piece "C" (where I put the * to help keep track). The other is a curve equal to the bottom of piece "B" (which is in turn equal to the inward thumb curve of piece "A"). Piece D is now complete.
Construction
Now that we have all the pieces it's time to put them together.
1) Cut out the gusset (step 9, last section) two "A" patterns, one "B" pattern, one "C" pattern and one "D" pattern using the 2-way stretch spandex. Note that pattern "A" has to stretch around your arm and not stretch the long way so cut it in the appropriate direction along the cloth. Patterns "B", "C", and "D" also have to stretch in their proper directions as indicated in diagram 2. If you're unsure of how the glove is going to come out you might want to make one at a time, no sense wasting good fabric if the pattern's off.
2) Assemble the two tops of the "A"s together with the gusset in between. The gusset should start just below the pinkie, go up and down the fingers and end on the index finger a bit above the thumb. It's almost impossible to hold such a tightly curving seam straight by hand or just using pins so you'll have to use some very loose hand stitching to hold everything in alignment. Run it through the machine gusset side up.
3) Sew the forearm seams of the "A" pieces together using several passes of non-stretching stitch. Be careful not to sew the thumb curve closed. Try it on, it should fit well, though it lacks the thumb.
4) Take the almost flat edge of part "D" and sew it into the sharp inverse v at the botton of part "C" with a stretch stitch. They should fit perfectly if you measured right.
5) Use a stretch stitch to join the top and sides of part "B" to the top and sides of part "C" (Which should be sewn to "D" by now).
6) Sew the "BCD" piece into the thumb area of the two "A" pieces, the seams will not line up between the two "A"s and the "BCD", so don't expect them to, they should fit together well though. You should turn the "BCD" slightly inward toward your palm so each glove has a bias depending on which hand it's going on. Make sure you don't make two of the same hand.
The inner lining of the paw-glove is complete. That was the easy part I'm sorry to say. In the next section shit really starts getting complex.
This part is the outside of the paw-glove, it's made mostly of fake fur, if you can get the type that has a little stretch to it, good, because the whole paw-glove is supposed to fit close. It's made of three parts, each with a pattern of an unusual design. By unusual I mean the first pattern looks like the diagram on the right. The patterns appear to make little sense now but will come together in the end.
1) Let's start with the easy bits. Draw a straight vertical line to base the next several lines upon. You draw a line equal to the round measure of the open end of the paw-glove, if the paw-glove is meant to come up to your elbow, that's how wide it's going to be. It should, of course correspond with the length of the inner lining that you made in the last chapter. This is centered on that first vertical line. Do not take it in for stretch because the fur fabric will not have enough stretch. In fact you might want to add around 1/2 an inch. Theses are meant to fit tight but you still need some wiggle room.
2 & 3) Now we draw in the length leading up to the wrist (2) into the width of the wrist(3). Remember we're doing full round measures, not half. This isn't a double pattern.
4) Open your palm a bit so that it's almost but not fully spread and measure how wide it is at the "height" of the base (first joint) of the thumb. Get a round measurement if you can (the measuring tape might slip) or use a ruler, double the distance across and add just a little bit for the sides of the palm. From the wrist move up slightly and mark it across. Join it to the wrist lines with an appropriate curve on each side. Note: Everything up to this point is pretty much symetrical and centered on that first vertical line.
5) Now a space for the thumb is made. It has to be pretty wide, arround the entire base of the thumb, from just below the index finger knuckle to under where the thumb meets the wrist. This should come out as sort of an elongated half pear shape from the line drawn in part 4 (where it says thumb space). Notice that there are spaces on both sides of the pattern. Note:save the measurement you used, it will be important when the thumb is made.
6) The paw pad in the palm is cut from the space for the thumb and has to go where you want the palm side to be. It's actual shape isn't too impotant, just a matter of taste. The only important thing is that it's not too big, it cant go around your hand or into your fingers. In truth it might be better saved for last.
7) We're almost at the top so we have to decide where the fingers go. Since you marked the wrist find the distance between your wrist and pinkie (just above the first knuckle) and mark it along the central line (7a). If you hold your hand straight you'll notice that the first knuckle of your index finger is higher than the knuckle of your pinkie. Mark the height of your index finger too (just above the first knuckle). Extend the lines from the thumb space to level of the index finger (7b). Do it on both sides, and extend both lines to the index finger level not the pinkie level.
8) Next comes the pinkie, the pinkie for the pattern should be a bit longer, say 3/4 of an inch longer than your own, most of it should be slightly wider (1/2 inch). At the top extend it an extra 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch on either side. It should be centered on the center line at pinkie level. The top of the pinkie pattern is divided into three curves. The first should be the widest, taking up about half the width of the expanded finger top. The second and third curves should be about a quarter each. Most of the fingers will be done in this fashion, the largest curve will line up to you fingertip, the palm (fingerprint) side and the two smaller curves will handle the back and sides of the finger. The first curve will be the fingerprint side of the fingertip and should be toward the palm side of the glove. The other two will go around the back of your finger and be away from the palm side. Stll all the notches between the curves should be about the same size since they will be sewn together at the fingertip. It's okay if they're a little off because the claw still has to go in, even if you don't use the claw you should still be able to sew them together.
9)Do the same thing for the index finger basically. Slightly, wider, slightly longer, bulge at the top. The difference is you make sure the largest curve at the top is on the outside, away from the pattern's center. The index finger is higher so put on the index finger level line. The index finger is also centered on the outside line as seen in the diagram. It looks out of place but when the paw is complete it will wrap around and be in position above the thumb and everything will fit (probably).
10)Draw a curving line, starting at horizontal from the index finger and dropping subtly to pinkie level. Copy this exact same curve, reversed on the other side of the pinkie and make sure all the lines connect like they do on the diagram.
Congratulations, this monster pattern section is complete.
Pattern 2:
This pattern is pretty simple. It's for the ring and middle fingers.
1) Like in the previous two fingers you have to measure around your middle finger and it's length. Like the previous two the pattern will be a bit longer than your finger measurement and a bit wider. It will also get wider at the top and break into three curves, one curve large, the other two smaller.
2) End the middle finger part with a striaght line and make small "joiner" section equal to about 1/3 the round measurement of the middle finger and about 1/4 inch long.
3) Measure the ring finger just like all the others and mark upside down beneath the middle finger pattern you've just drawn. Make sure that both large curves are on the same side of the pattern. It should resemble the diagram.
No problem.
Pattern 3:
The third piece of the fur part is for the thumb, it also includes the fleshy bit between the thumb and the palm of the hand, it's a very unusual looking pattern because it has a part where you cut a slice in it and resew it to another part of the pattern.
In a way it's like two seperate patterns combined into one, a sort of tube shaped bit for your thumb and a wedge that connects the thumb to the palm section.
1) Measure the height and round measure of your thumb. Like the other patterns you add a little to the length and thickness. Unlike the other patterns the three curve tip has the largest curve in the center. Since the thumb is wider than all the other fingers It will be especially bulbous at the top and since the thumb knuckle is so big it should be very wide at the bottom. Close it with a straight line at the bottom.
2) Use the notches between the curves at the top of the thumb to divide it into three sections. Draw a line at 90 degrees from the straight line that served as the bottom of the stuff you drew in step 1. (see diagram). Mark the widest of these sections, the center for cutting. It's not necessary to make a cut in the actual pattern but you will need to make a single cut there in the fabric.
3) Measure two of the sections defined at step 2 and draw a line 1/2 to 3/4 longer on the opposite side of the remaining section. If you look at the spots where it's marked "step 3" in the diagram, the leftmost line would be 1/2 to 3/4 longer than the right line.
4) Step 4 would be that whole curved bit on the bottom. It corresponds with the thumb space bits basically. Draw a curve the same length as both "thumb space" pieces would be that starts on one of the lines that sectionalize the humb and ends at the far end of the line drawn in step 3. You may notice that the one on the thumb spaces has a gap where the palm pad would be. Just put in a concave curve that would complete the palm pad in the appropriate spot (4b). Just measure top of the thumb space on the palm side of pattern 1.
It's done. An actual scan of my pattern can be seen here.
Construction
Remeber to make one of each part per glove, remember to flip the pattern for the opposite hand.
Sewing the First Part.
The first part uses diagram 4.
1)All these parts start with sewing the fingers together. Don't sew up to the tip, it needs to be open to put in the claws and even if you're not using claws it's proabably better to hand sew them while most of the finger is best sewn by machine. Sew the index finger as shown in diagram 4, if not using claws finish the tip by hand and make sure everything joins up at the end.
2) Same as step 1 but with a different finger.
3) Sew the edges of the palm and forearm together. Dont sew into the space for the palm paw pad.
4)Hand sew the bit of the bottom of the pinkie that's not attached to the other side. Dont sew the whole thing because part of it will be attached to the ring finger. Only go about 3/4 around.
Sewing part 2
Nice and simple, sew the middle finger, then the ring finger. Don't sew the two together. Again don't finish the tops if you're adding claws, finish by hand if it's clawless.
Sewing part 3
Check diagram 5
1) First thing to do after you trace the glove is to make a cut along the "cut here line".
2) Sew the sides of the thumb together just like you have all these other fingers, finish the tip by hand if you're not using claws, leave it open if you are.
3) The next part is handled best by hand sewing It's a little hard to describe but it should be clear once you've gotten this far. You have the piece with a thumb sew together and the rest is just a flap. Fold the flap up and wrap it around the thumb. You'll notice that there's a bit more flap than thumb. Adjust it so that both points of the flap are even then start sewing the base of the thumb to the flap. Keep both points even and sew on both sides. When the entire thumb is sewn together sew the remaining bits of flap into a single point.
Assembly
Attach piece two to piece one as shown on the diagram (6). Don't get it backwards and switch the fingers. I doubt it can be done by machine, this fine work must be hand sewn. Next attach piece 3, the thumb, to piece 1. It's probably best to do this by hand too. The seams on piece 3 and piece 1 don't have to line up but thay should be close. Remember that part of piece 3 becomes the final "wall" of the paw pad and should not be attached to anything yet. Remember that the largest "bumps" on the fur finger tips will be where the fingerprint side ofyour fingertip will be.
That's all for the fur untill all the parts are assembled.
1) Sculpt a claw out of clay. You can make several castings from a single mold but you might want to make slightly different claws for different fingers. Oil based clays soften with heat. If you blast the sculpted claw with a hair dryer untill the surface becomes almost liquid you can give it a very smooth appearance. Brushing it with pure alchohol can also smooth it out a bit.
2) Spray the claws with acrylic sealant. This helps with the casting and gives them more shine and smoothness. If you want them very shiny spray them with several layers of sealant. Allow the sealant to dry thoroughly and be careful with all those nasty chemical fumes.
3) Coat the sealed sculpted claws with latex to make a negative mold, spread a bit around the bottom to make a "collar". This collar will be useful for the casting. Make sure the latex layer is not too thin.
4) Using a dremel metal cutter, hacksaw or bolt cutter cut off some pieces of the metal wire. The pieces of wire should be equal to half the length of the claw plus slightly less than the length of you fingertip (the first bone at the end of your finger).
5) Score a number of notches in the wire with the dremel metal cutter (or by hand with a hacksaw). Don't make them too deep or the wire will be weakened.
6) This is optional. Tie a loop of thick thread or string around the end of the wires that will be inside the claw. This piece of string helps keep the claw secured to the rest of the glove.
7) When the latex is thoroughly set and dry remove the clay so you have your negative mold. Now comes the pivitol moment when the claws are cast from plastic. Set up a piece of cardboard with holes cut in it to hold the molds in place (this is where the collars come in handy). The plastic has to harden in the negative mold while the metal pins are inside of it. I used Alumilite which hardens in under 5 minutes so I just held the pins in place while the claws were hardening. If your plastic takes longer you may have to contrive some sort of cardboard and duct tape device to keep everything aligned. If you have the attached thread it should be on top of the pins, near the top of the claw. It is very important that the pins are not all the way at the bottom of the mold. They should be somewhere in the center. They also shouldn't be right next too each other. They should be spaced slightly, but not touching the walls of the mold. It's okay if they stick out too far or if you made the pins too long, you can always cut or file them down later.
8) Cut a groove 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch from the base of the claw. The groove shouldn't be too deep because we don't want to hit the pins. Remeber a metal cutter might not cut plastic properly, you need an electric saw with proper teeth.
The claws, for now, are done. Another coat of clear sealant couldn't hurt.
Attaching Claws to Fur.
1) When attaching a claw make sure the pins sticking out of the claw are the right size. They should be slightly shorter than the finger tip (the first bone of the finger) that they correspond to. Before attaching make sure they're the correct size and that any sharp or rough points on the pins have been ground down.
2) Turn the fur glove inside out. Begin hand sewing the tip together untill it becomes difficult to push a claw through. Sew it so the tip grasps the claw tightly. You may have to sew one seam, then work on another, than go back to the first.
3) Using a thick, heavy, thread and a heavy needle sew through the fur, go into the groove of the claw and out through the fur again. Work your way around the claw several times occasionally pulling and knotting the thread. This will bring the thread into the claw and close the fur around it like tying closed a sack. The claws should be attached to the fur somewhat securely by this point.
4) After all the claws are in place using steps 1 through 3 above use an adequate amount of epoxy glue to secure the fur firmly to the plastic claws.
Attaching Claws to Spandex
After the claws are securely attached to the fur we add the spandex layer.
1) Take some open cell foam and cut out pieces to pad the pins in the claws. The pads should be slightly wider than the width the two pins are taking up and slightly longer than the length of the pins. Putting a thin layer of latex on the pads will help them withstand the pins better. These pads go between your fingers and the pins (otherwise the pins will dig into your knuckle). Use many passes of thread to tie the pins to the foam pads then use a bit of latex or contact cement to keep the pins, pads and foam all stuck together.
2) Sew the claws to the spandex. You do this by starting on the palm side (fingerprint) seam of the spandex gloves, going over the claw's pins (and attached pad) and over to the other side, not the palm side seam. Don't be afraid to make the thread a bit taut, the spandex will stretch and it will pull the fingertip of the glove over your fingertip. Use many passes and use the notches cut in the pins to help the thread stay in place.
3) Take another small piece of foam and attach it over the pins with a bit of contact cement. Using a bit of thread to cocoon the metal pins between the foam then coating it with a thin coat of latex would be ideal. All this adds a little fatness to the fingertips making them resemble real claws.
4)If your claws have the optional piece of thick thread you can secure it to the spandex glove directly behind the foam wrapped pins. It should help keep the claws in place a little more securely.
Finale: Attaching Spandex to Fur.
Now the spandex is attached to the claws and the claws are attached to the fur. The only thing left is to attach the fur to the spandex.
1) Start at the area between the fingers (see diagram), where the fingers meet. Sew those points top and bottom. This will help a lot by keeping the fingers open while you're trying to put the glove on.
2) While wearing the glove use a looping hand stitch to attach the fur outline of the palm paw pad to the spandex glove. It's a bit tricky, especially with your off hand, but if you work slow it'll come together. Make sure to keep the glove fit well, no wrinkles. Make sure your hand is held nice and wide, the paw pad should be big. You want this to hold so remember to keep the stitches close of go around twice.
3) Now we're coming to the finger paw pads. Start by cutting a tiny hole in one of the finger tips, basically where you'd expect you fingertip to be. Put the glove on and take a look. Keep cutting the hole a little larger untill almost your entire fingertip pokes through. Your finger should be touching the back of the claw if it's in the right position.
4) Using a looping hand stitch attatch the spandex finger tip to the surrounding fur. Repeat for all fingers.
5) You could call it almost done right now but to make the glove look and work better you need to brush some thinned down latex into the spandex paw pads using a piece of foam. This too has to be done while wearing the paw-glove. It helps if you dry it with a hair dryer.
6) Sew the spandex cuff to the fur cuff (make sure it's not twisted) and it's over.
