Cheater stockings for the late period dandy

My poor Husbeast has been wearing an old pair of my leggings, pulled down over his feet,  as stockings for the last 18 months. To be fair I've been scrambling to get (and keep) him in linens, and get him enough suits made that he's not always wearing the same thing. Then there's been household uniform to make and keep up, and new fencing helmet trappings. Never a dull moment in clothing the husbeast. But I actually finished his "leisure" outfit for War of the Roses this year, and wanted him to have something comfortable to wear on his legs that wasn't so obviously out of place as lycra dancers leggings. I did a little research and consulted with the wonderful knitting laurel Angharad, who specializes in stockings. Really he needs good knit stockings of wool or silk (wool for regular wear, silk maybe for his court suit) and fancy garters. The stockings would extend up into the trunkhose and be secured there either possibly by being laced onto the leg bands (by eyelets in some of the trunkhose in patterns of fashion) or I suspect by the older method where they pointed onto the brais, or into the waistband of the trunkhose even (And thence to the doublet). the very short trunkhose would require quite long stockings, and some way of keeping them up. I don't see why the method that worked so admirably for cloth hose wouldn't work here as well.

More research later. For now I just need to cover his nether limbs in a seemly fashion for this season. (I took a class about calculating patterns for knit hose this summer, SUPER EXCITING, and I hope to knit him a proper pair over the winter)

I will note that cloth stockings were worn by the lower to middle classes still at the time when his persona was living by the sword. However I have a couple quibbles about those. the first being I think they would have been on the low class end of how I clothe him. which is good quality clothing with  few flashes of fancy: Things he might have picked up in his travels or as prizes/plunder. The other problem is his legs. When the Husbeast squats, his thigh goes from about 22 inches to about 27..... This has resulted in a lot of drama with the leg bands of his trunkhose, and I have my doubts about the ability of bias cut cloth to keep up with that kind of increase. My final decision was to make sewn stockings from machine knit material as a stopgap. Not, to be sure, accurate, but better by a long shot than what he has now. Especially if accessorized with good garters! I consulted the wonderful Dreamstress for method and pattern, since I remembered her doing it for the historical sew fortnightly. What she was doing was different, but gave me an idea of what the foot pattern should look like at least.  Then I simply cut a long rectangle of knit fabric I had lying about, had the husbeast stand on one end and hold the other, and started pinning. There was a lot of pinning. Then I basted all the pinned bits so he could get it off without stabbing himself, and had him hold the long leftover bit up so I could mark a point at the top that could be pointed onto either brais or the waistband of his trunkhose.  Having made a few pairs of cloth hose came in really handy here, because I had some idea of what the top edges should look like to be comfortable and practical.

I marked all the edges of the basting, took the stitches out, and voila: one 3d leg rendered into 2d. Now I had to make more decisions. I decided to make a scant quarter inch seam allowance, as I would be sewing these with either stepped zigzag, or the serger. I cut around the drawn lines at that distance, then transferred the pattern to paper. At the same time that i did this, I made the heel point symetrical, although I left the foot shaped left/right. I also chose to make the foot portion separate from the leg, rather than leaving a giant dart that would have to be trimmed off. this allows for more creative arrangement of the pattern onto fabric as well.

it's a weird looking pattern. The () is where the foot attaches to the calf. So left to right on the pattern you have: the heel flap, the bottom of the right foot, the top of the right foot, then the leg, with the pointy bit being the  part for pointing into his waistband. 

 With a good pattern in hand, I cut the second hose from  the same scrap knit, and sewed them up. i didn't have light thread in my serger, so I used a stepped zig zag on my standard machine, being careful to not stretch the fabric out as I sewed.   this is one area where I'm a strong proponent of lots of pins. I faced the top edge with knit, interfacing the point with handkerchief linen so it would hold up to pointing. I top stitched the edge with a zig zag, and the point with a straight stitch, and worked eyelets in the point. Voila, a stocking. Repeat and you have a pair!

With this kind of stockings, he needed garters, to keep them from continually sliding down the leg
and exerting a lot of pressure on the attachment point. The garters also keep the stocking sleek over the lower leg, adequately displaying the manly calf of the wearer. Well turned calves were MUCH in style, even to the extent that men sometimes resorted to padding to obtain a more pleasing proportion. Small projects like this are why I keep a silk scrap stash. I decided (somewhat uncharitably probably) that these garters were a gift from me, his beloved, and therefore should be in my colors. (right? Right?) I also HAPPENED to have a scrap of violent green silk lurking around..... Fortuitous really.   I sewed these by machine, then worked over the edges in whip stitch to firm them up a little and give them some grip.                                     

Instead of tassels I made a little yellow silk needle lace edging on these, not a lot, just a row of loops worked out of tight blanket stitch to give the end a little pop. it's not my best work ever, but not terrible for a first attempt. Even though these are silk satin, which would NOT be my first choice (slippery) they stay tied just fine. Of course I'd like to make him several more pairs (maybe one with those fabulous silver tassels??) it's actually a really effective way to work on needle lace, because it's a small enough bit that you don't make yourself crazy with frustration!

Of course I'm getting around to posting this four months later (that being the soonest I got a picture of him wearing them) which means that I can update with how these worked. I haven't gotten to the wool ones yet, but the cotton pair have been really sucessful. He points them to the waistband of his trunkhose, and they look about a thousand times better than the old spandex leggings, and are less hot since they don't come up over the waist. I'm still hoping to knit him  couple "proper" pairs, but for now, these are working out ok. He doesn't even seem to mind the violent green garters! (and yes, better shoes are on the wishlist for him. but getting anything in 14 EEEE is difficult. I think we're going to end up having to go full custom which is $$$$) 

Spanish Traveling cloak (or the cloak of poor choices)

I decided in January that this was going to be the year when I finally entered SCA arts and sciences competitions, and to pursue that goal, I was FINALLY going to work on some more difficult fleece to garment projects. I've had a few of them lurking half researched in the corners of notebooks for a few years now. I tend to be so buried in Needs sewing, that i don't get around to doing projects that force me to work to my capacity, stretch my skills and grow as an artisan. I've been doing that in a small way, by learning new embroidery things for Athena's thimble, and it's been very satisfying, but I wanted to do it with more than embroidery, which kind of necessarily means larger scale projects. Competing gives me an excuse for that.

The first of these projects was my planned winter project for this year, a hand woven, hand embroidered hooded cloak for the husbeast to wear at chilly events like 100 minutes. My plan was to make as exact of a reproduction as possible of this "spanish style" cloak in the Germanisches National Museum.

This cloak is white twill wool, heavily fulled, embroidered with couched work in brown wool, and decorated with tassels and "bobbles" on the hood. Because white isn't a really PRACTICAL color for a cloak at events that may be say, muddy, I decided to do mine in natural brown wool with madder dyed accents.

Because I started it later than I wanted to and only had 6 weeks to work on it before the competition, I finished this with scaled back embroideries for entry into Keepers of the Central Flame, an East Kingdom arts and sciences competition that was hosted by my home barony, concordia of the snows. For that I did a VERY comprehensive write up of my research and the process. So if you want to read a 20 page research paper about it, Here's a linky! I'm hoping to finish the embroideries and enter it in the display at pennsic this summer, so keep your eyes open for "finished" pictures of the husbeast modeling it! Here's a bunch of the process photos and pictures of my display for your enjoyment. this was a real stretch project and I learned a lot. I can't WAIT to take what I've learned and start something new!

weaving in progress, you can see my measuring tool pinned to the left selvedge, just a strip of fabric a yard long that helps me keep track of larger projects.

Entire project may be hell, but that's a fine straight selvedge!

Cut from the loom, but not yet fulled.

Fulled down, I used an entire inch per foot of width in shrinkage and could've used more (or used more ends per inch in the sett to begin with.)

edge blanket stitched in weaving thread, and the 6 strand braid being applied

Starting the crossed blanket stitch hem. You can see the front facing flap that will be turned back along the line of crossed blanket stitch. This doesn't serve the usual purpose of a facing (to cover a raw edge) but rather firms up the front edge so it hangs nicely.

spacing all the "rays" which are self applique pieces, and basting them down.  I was confused. why applique something in a way in which you can't even tel lit's there? Well those pieces are all cut on the straight of the grain with the grain running vertically through the ray. sewn onto the partially bias semi circular cape, they act like a support scaffold and force it to hang evenly all the way round, and drape beautifully from the neck. 

Starting the hood marking. 

Rays all appliqued. 

This is cross stitch worked over 3 strand braid. some of the points are wonky. if I had it to do again I'd baste both sides of the rays down with the weaving thread (so it didn't have to be removed) and THEN do the cross stitch. That'd keep everything from getting funny. 

Hood totally marked and working on the couching.

Hood finished and lined with the bobbles mounted! Getting there! 

The home stretch, marking the fronts: first with prick and pounce, then with thinned whit gouache.

On the stand at competition! 

The finished hem. You can't see the stabelizing blanket stitch in the weaving thread under the crossed blanket.

Some of my display. The husbeast made me the wonderful wood display cards for my threads.

A Soft Parry Cloak for Husbeast (with cutting diagram)

1629 etching from
"Le Jardin de la Noblesse Française..."

I'm not usually effected by "scope creep" the phenomenon where a project starts out simple, and then gains momentum until it's a jaugernot of complexity, for the simple reason that most of my projects start out at "crazy person" and go from there. But this one definitely hit that pitfall. What started as a "make something for the husbeast two days before christmas" project turned into..... Well, you'll see.

For christmas this year, the husbeast got fencing gear. My contribution to the haul was was a small cloak for use as a soft parry. A soft parry can be anything floppy, a piece of leather, a towel, a floppy hat: but typically a small cavalier style cloak is used. Although the cavalier style cloak is very late in our period, and it's heyday seems to have been in the early 1600's, (along with the wide brimmed hat and floppy topped cavalry boots, it's one of the signatures of what we modernly think of as the "Musketeer" look) period fencing manuals do show people using a similarly sized cloth or cloak in defense.

diGrasse's True Art of Defense 

I was, myself, unsure what a good size for this object would be. Husbeast has a small cloak taken from similar patterns in Patterns Of Fashion, made of wool, trimmed with velvet, and lined in silk. It fits him perfectly, but is manifestly too large to be used effectively as a soft parry. My conclusion was that, because of his size relative to normal humans, anything that would fit him as a cloak would be on the large side for use as a parry. So I consulted my rapier fighting house sister, and she measured her fiancee's cloak for me, which is heavier than she likes, but of a size suitable for a bigger guy. It's a wonderful pattern because it makes a very nicely draping cloak from a yard of 60" wide fabric, if you're willing to have a seam at the center back of the collar, or a yard and a quarter if you want the collar in one piece. It makes a very dashing shoulder cloak for a person of medium size, if not for my linebacker sized husband. Originally I did not plan to use the collar, since he won't wear it, but after I cut it and flapped it around a bit, I found the collar stiffens the neckline and makes gripping the cloak easier, as well as making it easier to fan the cloak out when you need to. I suggest using the collar even if you won't be wearing the cloak. 

Cutting Diagram for 1 yard of 60" wide fabric. Half inch seam allowed at center back of collar. if you don't want a seam in the collar, use a yard and a quarter and cut the collar 13.5" long on the fold. 

I won't get into construction here, as this is a pretty simple project (and I didn't take any pictures) I will note that if you plan to wear the cloak you may wish to slightly curve the collar piece so it will lie flatter, up to you. In that case you would want to cut from a yard and a quarter. It is also preferable to cut the lining at the same time as the cloak, with the two layers pinned together, so as to avoid having them be different sizes. 

I am still trying to make things with only items I have on hand, so I used a brown faux suede material for the outside of the cloak, and a burgundy satin for the lining. The faux suede is sturdy, drapey, and slightly grippy, all useful in a soft parry. I added some appropriate trim I had in stash, wrapped it and stuck it under the tree.

And this is when the scope creep happened. I kept thinking about how the trim was the perfect mount for spangles, and how it would sparkle in the light when he flipped it..... so with christmas safely past, I fished out my spangles and started applying them.

It takes a remarkable amount of time to spangle all of the everything, even on a moderately small cloak. I applied the spangles every other bunch on the trim, and knotted each one down with it's own knot, then ran the thread under the lining to the next spangle. This eliminated tails, but if he snags one and pulls it off, it will only be the one that is pulled off. The spangles are put down with Sulky 12 wt cotton, matching the lining, each sewn down with three equally spaced stitches, as seen in my favorite source book for these things: Elizabethan Stitches.

 Then I decided those spangles looked a little lonely, and wouldn't some gold braid set it off. I have a cone of Krenik braid, but I also have a lot of semi worthless DMC metallic floss. Having just learned how to bobbin braid..... Well I separated the floss into strands, wound it onto bobbins, and braided it, two strands of gold, two strands of copper.

and couched it down onto the cloak with the same 12 wt. cotton thread. I couched it fairly closely to prevent snags. Gold elements are seen couched both with matching silk threads, and with contrasting silk threads in period pieces (according to my same favorite source book.)

There was enough braid to edge both sides of the trim and do a little fancy in the corners, I left the collar plain because with the multiple rows of spangled trim, the effect of adding gold braid was a touch frenetic. 

 The only complaint I have, is working along the bias, it was easy to slightly stretch the fabric as you couched the cord down, you can see a few kinks in the cord where that happened. Not the end of the world but a little frustrating.

 Of course ideally this would have all been done before I put the lining on, but it does have the unintended benefit of stabilizing the edges of the lining, although it's not as tidy as it would have been if I had done it all before I lined it.

 All in all a pretty outcome, and the Husbeast loves it. If you were going to wear it, you would add cords at the neck. since he isn't going to, they'd just be an encumbrance.

The Gloves of Doom: Part 1, Design

gloves in the collection of the Victoria and Albert museum
ca 1603-1625

In my earlier post about glove making I talked about the seed of an idea that was born while trying to figure out how to make fencing gloves for the Husbeast. In a nutshell I discovered the totally over the top confection that is Elizabethan embroidered gloves. These creations of silk, gilt threads, pearls, lace and spangles, are the ultimate gesture of wealth and power. Totally impractical, completely dramatic: pieces of wearable art. I was instantly fascinated, but  I couldn't see Husbeast actually wearing anything so.... frilly... no matter what period men would have thought about it.

Gloves from the collection of the
Livrustkammaren  ca 1620

But as soon as I saw this incredible (and understated by period standards) pair from the collection of the Livrustkammaren museum, I knew I could design something for the Husbeast. Clearly his life was not going to be complete without these gloves. Unfortunately this pair is likely from the early 1600's, when the the embroidered glove fashion was really gaining steam. But there were several pairs attributed to Queen Elizabeth I, so all hope of placing this style within period for SCA purposes (pre 1600) and within reason for my husband (who's somewhere between 1550-80 for style) was not lost. I went on a research rampage: I looked at every single pair of gloves I could find, and consulted the good gentles in the Elizabethan costuming group, and the historic embroidery group, who are always helpful at pointing out good resources.


There's a good deal of difficulty, of course, in dating some of these items. Unless we know exactly whom it belonged to, or have pictorial or document evidence tying it directly to a date and person, the best that can be done, even by experienced professional curators, is to pin a date range on the item. Fashion trends, portraiture, style of embroidery, materials used, oral or documented history attached to an item, can all point to a probable date. Without expert knowledge, or access to the actual items, I rely on the dating of the museums where these gloves are housed.

The earliest embroidered gloves I could find were this gents embroidered glove, dated 1580-1600, housed in the Museum of Leathercraft.








And this gentleman's gauntlet, dated 1575-1625 housed in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.















There are also several pairs attributed to that Maven of fashion: Queen Elizabeth I, including this lovely pair she is supposed to have worn at her coronation.

In my mind, this makes the the embroidered gauntlet glove definite pre 1600, even though the height of the fashion, and the really extreme examples of opulence come much later. I consider it plausible for 1560-80. and therefore an in for my husband.

Gloves in the collection of the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, showing a hunt scene. 

A perusal of every pair of extant glove I could find, and exhaustive discussion about embroidery styles with the historical embroidery group, as well as more experienced SCA members, lead me to the conclusion that the earlier pairs relied more heavily on couching and satin stitch and less on the surface stitches: detached buttonhole, Elizabethan chain stitch, and their like.  The earlier examples, as a group, also seem to be slightly less, encrusted, in design than those at the height of the fashion. At the height of the fashion it seemed to be the goal to use all of the possible design elements at once: pearls, spangles, gold lace, silk ruffles, and embroidery, and in the largest volume possible for ultimate opulence.

 Elizabethan embroideries relied on source materials from both life and, as books became more easily available, a plethora of printed materials. Exotic floral patterns were popular, as were humbler native flowers, and all sorts of fauna both realistic and exotic. Even fruits and veggies can be found in exuberant Elizabethan embroidered scenes. (1)

pair of gloves CA 1620 in the collection of the MET

Certain design elements seem to be popular across the board: the scalloped edge is seen on most of the gloves with applied cuffs, and lace or fringed edging on almost all the examples. in gloves with attached gauntlets, some sort of decorative covering for the seam attaching the gauntlet to the glove proper was typically used: Whether it be a small goldwork stitch, or a silken ruffle edged with lace and spangles in the more opulent examples. Pattern elements were often enclosed in decorative vinework, or goldwork, and then open spaces filled with smaller motifs, with interspersed knots, beads, or frequently spangles. Negative space seems to have been the enemy of the Elizabethan embroiderer. This is more true on those gloves with an applied cuff rather than an integral leather cuff. The integral cuff examples as a group feature less embroidery, and more visible ground than the applied cuff group.

In about half of the 102 surviving gloves I lookedat the embroidery was done on a cloth cuff, most typically of silk backed  with linen (2) (although some linen and canvas examples exist 3) or sometimes stiffened with paper (the victoria and albert museum has a pair like this). Not all the collections list what materials are used under the embroidered satin, but from experience with gloves, fabric, and embroidery, I consider it likely that all the satin cuffed gloves had some sort of strength layer underneath to make the cuff hold the desired shape. In addition, the majority of the gloves were lined, or partially lined, with only a few examples being listed as unlined.

Although the scalloped edge is the most popular, there are smooth edged gauntlets surviving:

L: National Armory, Stockholm, Sweden. ca 1620  R: the MET, 16th century

A number of the earlier pairs feature embroidery around the thumb, as well as the attached gauntlet.(this is my favorite pair again. So fabulous.) later in the period, towards the end of the 16th century, the embroidery started moving down the glove and onto the hand, but this is not seen on any of the earlier examples.

from the collection of the Worshipful Order of Glovers, 

After looking at so many gloves my eyes were starting to blur, I decided on a theme of mythical beasts, (which was not as popular as floral designs, but was a thing. There's a fabulous pair with phoenix's on them 4) with a lozenge pattern inspired by the amazing gloves from the  Livrustkammaren and an equally incredible pair from the collection of the Worshipful Order of Glovers collection. I took the the cuff pattern for my husband's gauntlet, traced it into my sketchbook, and using heraldry books (5) and pictures of extant gloves as source material, started drawing. I eventually came up with this

Right glove, top to bottom: Wyvvern, Griffin, Antelope, and Sea lion.
Left glove, top to bottom: sea unicorn, phoenix, calygreyhound, and basilisk.
my signature mouse, sitting on a stalk of lavender, is on the bottom of the left glove. I plan to work the mouse in my own hair (which was a thing in the Elizabethan period as well as the Victorian 6)

They will be worked with silk, gold, and spangles onto chocolate brown silk over linen (silk colored to match the gloves was common according to the collection of the Worshipful Order of Glovers) on brown suede gloves (white or beige was the most common in collections, but brown was the next most popular color, and darker colors did exist. it was about 50/50 between grain and suede side out leather in the gloves I looked at.)

1) English embroidery of the late tudor and stewart eras. Article from the MET. Melinda Watt, 2010
2) Detailed descriptions from the victoria and albert museums collection.
3) The worshipful company of glovers collection of 75 gloves of this type has 2 with a linen ground, and 3 with a canvas ground, which is most probably also linen.
4) Worshipful company of glovers collection, accession number 23342
5) The Heraldic Imagination, Rodney Dennys,  Clarkson Potter, 1976, ISBN-10: 0517526298
6) Elizabethan Stitches: a guide to Historic English Needlework, Jaqui Carey, Carey Company 2012, ISBN-10: 0952322587, Page 13

The start of my glove making journey, with some resources for aspiring glovers.

This is a project from last summer when Husbeast and Ladybug started fencing, and it was just easier and less expensive to learn to make gloves for them than it was to try and find them gloves that actually fit. Children's fencing gauntlets are scarce as hens teeth, and gloves that actually fit the husbeasts shovel shaped hands are a laugh. So I looked up some resources, looked at some period gloves, and said, I can do this. I didn't have time, or even think to write it up at the time, because it was a pretty utilitarian project, but I've kept going and am now starting on fancier gloving projects, so I thought I'd write up the beginning of the whole journey here, as well as gather some of the resources I used in one place so folks don't have to do the amount of googling I did. (scroll to the bottom for the resource list)

I started by practicing on a pair of very basic single piece gauntlets for Ladybug, starting with drafting a pattern and making mockups in felt. Lots of mockups in felt. I discovered that pattern drafting for gloves is not as intuitive as some other kinds of pattern drafting. Then I stretched a piece of gilded kidskin I had hanging about (bought in a scrap bin at a sale 10+ years ago.) traced and cut the gloves. And then found out that leather, even kidskin, is very, very different to work than fabric. On the plus, Ladybug loves them because they're shiny. An important lesson on this pair was how much easier it is if you use cardboard for your final patterns (from a file folder or cereal box), it's so much easier to trace around precisely than even stiff paper. Also, metallic sharpie marker shows up nicely on dark leathers (the back side of this leather is too dark for pencil or marker to show well.)

With one pair under my belt, I looked at as many pictures of italian gloves from the second half of the 16th century as I could find, and proceeded to draft a pattern for a two piece gauntlet for the husbeast, and make mockups. Lots of mockups. Good thing felt is cheap. The italian glove lacks the extended fingertips and exagerated fouchettes (the piece between the fingers) seen on English gloves of the same period, and typically features a cuff that is folded back over the hand. Since that's illegal for fencing, I kept the shape, but borrowed the gauntlet from a slightly later glove (also seen on earlier hawking gloves, so it was known) This pair is made from medium weight deerskin, and has a lovely feel. You can see the fouchettes are slightly pointed, and come onto the back of the hand more than modern gloves, but don't extend past the knuckles like many English examples.


I lined the cuff in linen, as seen on surviving gauntlets, and stitched the leather down over it, stitching partway through the outside of the glove to keep the edge from rolling out. the split side is the period style, but the split makes the glove illegal for fencing, so I added a small gusset of the lining material inside the opening to keep the look but still comply with regulations.

Sewing these gloves taught me the absolute importance of having the right needles. I needed to get them done, so started the task with a regular sharps needle. That required the use of a jury rigged leather palm pad, a thimble, and a pair of pliers to do the stitching. It was slow, and my fingers cramped after less than an hour of stitching. I switched to a glovers needle as soon as they came in the mail, and the difference was astounding. You still need a good quality thimble (I like this one) and it's not fast work, but my fingers didn't cramp. The sharp glovers needle also enabled me to do the stitching around the edge, which I never could have done with a standard needle.

For scale, my hand, spread out as far as possible, on the Husbeast's glove. Women's large gloves are about a half an inch too short in the fingers for me. He can't stop exclaiming over how wonderful it is to have gloves that actually fit him, and has started angling for a pair of work gloves for outside chores.

 This week I made a pair for Crash, who just turned 6 and started fencing. Here's a quick photo run down of the process, for really good detailed instructions I recommend the resources listed at the end of the post!

Pattern, and felt mockp There's a pin in the pinky showing me how much to shorten it.

After tracing and cutting everything but between the fingers, the first step is putting in the thumbs using an overcast stitch (seen on extant gloves in the collection of the  worshipful order of glovers.)

With the thumbs in I switch to the treadle machine for sewing the rest in the interest of speed.

Sew in the points on the back of the hand, then finish off each point with a few overcast stitches. All threads knotted off, dotted with fraycheck, and clipped short. You can see the nice finish the overcast gives on the inside of the thumb. 

I've folded the thumb partway inside out to keep it out of the way while I sew (don't ask how I know to do this....) then folded the glove in half and sewed the remaining seam. At the end I knot the threads and run the tail back up the seam, keeping them from dangling from the cuff of the glove.

One down, one to go! I have the fouchette patterns out so I can be sure to put them with the right fingers. 

Crash is very well pleased and would wear them everywhere if he could! He wore one to nap while I was finishing the second off! 

A good fit, excepting the slight twist on the middle finger of his left hand. I think this was caused by a little easing I did of the finger into the fouchette. I will be more careful about this next time. The seams will flatten down with wear.  

At the beginning of this post I said that I was going to start some more fancy gloving project. That is completely the fault of researching on the internet, because while I was looking up gloves for the Husbeast's fencing gauntlets, I saw these:

Pair of English or Dutch gloves, ca 1620, in the collection of the MET

And the seed of an idea was born..... 

Resources for gloving: 

• How to make gloves: This is a vintage rather than historical find, but it walks you through the techniques and terms better than any other resource I've found. Good pictures too. 
• Gloves from pattern to hand: A good walkthrough with lots of great pictures.
• The Glove website: How to make gloves: Light on pictures, but a series of really useful articles, particularly on patterning. Do read the article linked on the first page "how to make elizabethan gloves. 
• A Journey Into Italian Gloves: a comprehensive list of what seems like every picture of an 16th century italian glove in a portrait there is. Close up's with high enough resolution to see the stitching. an invaluable resource
• The Worshipful Order of Glovers: They have one of the largest most beautiful collections of historical gloves in the world I think. And it's all beautifully cataloged. 
• The Victoria and Albert museum: they also have a large collection of gloves, many with beautiful photographs. Also the MET has several nice pairs, although you've got to do a bit of digging to find them.