4.8 how can I make a fishnet shirt or gloves?

From: Ilen Zazueta-Audirac
get two pairs of fishnets, one pair goes on your legs. cut a hole in the crotch of the *other* pair, stick your head through the hole, your arms into the lags and wiggle your fingers until they poke out too. voila! instant fishnet shirt. if you've got a little time you can (a) cut the toes off and re-sew them so that your sleeves are arm-length instead of leg-length and (b) trim the edge of the neckline with black ribbon so that it won't fray.

From: Ismene
Illusion mesh is in the special occasion fabrics section of most fabric stores, and it comes in black, white, and sometimes a few other colors. It's a two-way stretch knit, but it doesn't have all that much give to it. I got approx. 1.5 yds of it and I bought a 99c t-shirt pattern, though you might be able to do without it. My total was around $12, I think.

Note: Making a mesh shirt wasn't particularly hard, but the fitting was a bit tricky to do by myself. This will go much easier if you have a dress form or a friend or family member to help you with fitting. I had to redo a sleeve since I learned this through trial and error.

Cut out the pattern as you normally would, though you can safely cut it a size smaller than you are. T-shirts are usually rather loose, but mesh shirts are usually more fitted since they're meant to go under other things. The fitting is easier to do once you've cut the cloth out.

I wanted the hem of my shirt to be higher than that of the pattern (which was hip-length), so I folded up the excess at the lower edge of the pattern before cutting out the fabric. Otherwise I cut the pieces out of the fabric as normal.

Sew the shoulder seams as normal. I used a zig-zag stretch stitch and made French seams on all the seams in the shirt.

Once the shoulder seams are sewn, pin the side seams loosely and try the shirt on. Adjust for the fit you want; I ended up with a seam allowance of over two inches since the pattern was much looser than how I wanted the finished product. Sew the side seams.

Pin the seams on the sleeves together, slide them on your arm, and adjust for fit. Be sure to leave enough room in the wrist area so that you can get your hands in & out of the sleeves. Sew the sleeve seams.

The next part is the most difficult, and is why I suggest a dress form or helper of some sort. Try on the shirt, and mark where the shoulder seams should go. (If you used a t-shirt pattern, the edges of the shoulder will be lower since you're making this tighter than the pattern intended.) You can mark the front of the shoulder seams by yourself, but it's nigh-impossible to do the back area alone. (Eventually I had to redo those parts since I first tried to do it by myself.) Take off the shirt, pin the sleeves on, and try it back on. Adjust the shoulder seam area as needed. Once it looks right, go ahead & sew the shoulder seams. I had a bit of trouble with the mesh getting caught in the feed dogs of my machine on the curved seams, so lower the feed dogs a bit if you can, or just watch them really carefully.

Now you should have a complete shirt with unfinished edges. I bound the neck with velvet ribbon because I think the darker line around the neck looks nice. Any sort of ribbon would work if the neck on the shirt is wide enough that it doesn't need to stretch, or you could fold the raw edges under and stitch them down, or even leave it unfinished since mesh doesn't ravel. If you have a serger, you can do lettuce edging on the wrists of the sleeves and the hem of the shirt (and even on the neck, if you wanted). I'm sergerless, so I just left those edges unfinished since they're usually hidden by other clothing or jewelry.

From: Kaleah
I tried making some fishnet gloves a while back. Here is what I did: First, I took a pair of old fishnets -- the good style, not the cheap, $0.99 pair you find at any drug store at Halloween time. (The major difference that I have noticed is that the threads are not only stronger but more plentiful, thereby making the fishnets more durable and less likely to have your toes poke through them! ;)

Next, I shoved my arm down the leg, hand in a fist. I pulled the tights (loosely) up to my armpit and then cut them at that point. It's ok here if they are uneven in length and a bit jaggedly cut. Then I took my arm out of the tights (of all things!) and started working on the finger holes.

The style I made have a hole for each finger, and one for the thumb slightly lower down and forward on the glove, giving it more of a fitted... uh.. fit. :) This can be altered to give fewer holes on the end, so that one, two, or even all of the fingers go through a hole. I then snipped four *small* holes at the end of the tights, cutting off bits of the seam. Then, I put the gloves back on again, and put the four fingers through the holes. I spread my fingers wide so that I could easily see and reach the fishnet in between the holes.

Then comes one of the tricky parts. First, to prevent excessive unraveling of the fishnet, I took some fingernail polish (just the cheap ol' stuff, black to match the thread) and brushed it over the ends of the cut fishnet and around the fingers. I did get some on my hands, but hey, any good nail-polish remover will get rid of that in no time! Now, taking my free hand, I stitched around the holes and across the seam to reinforce the ends. It is extremely difficult (as you might imagine) to "hem" the fishnets, but you can by pulling the thread tight through the holes. This will make them a bit larger, and I also did lose a bit of the length on the glove (that's why it was pulled up loose to begin with).

For the thumb, I made a *small* cut in the threads where the bottom of the thumb's knuckle is. *Carefully* I slipped the thumb through the hole and did the same for it.

One thing that I added to my finger- and thumb-holes was a bit of spare tights fabric; essentially elastic strips. I had a pair of old black tights with a run through them, so I just cut up little strips from them to serve as elastic. (Note: Make sure that the cuttings are either straight vertical or straight horizontal strips, or the elasticity will be lost.) Then, I sewed the thin strips around the fingers and the edge of the fishnetting. Granted, this did take a bit of time, but I found that it was well worth it as now I feel that I can be relatively rough in handling the gloves without fear of the ends unraveling.

For the other glove, make sure that when the thumb and finger holes are made that it is fitted on the other hand, or is reversed after sewing it. This is because the placement of the thumb is different -- if one glove is transferred to the other hand and the fingers and thumb were placed through the holes, you would find that the palm was now on the back of the hand, and vice versa. To fix this, simply turn the glove inside-out.

For my glove ends, I just put a ring of nail polish around it, about 1" (2.5cm) from the edge. To wear the gloves, I slip a rubber band up on my arm, over the gloves, then roll the ends down with the band in it a bit so that the gloves do not slip out. However, I only wear the gloves underneath a shirt or dress whose sleeves cover the top of the gloves. But, if you want a style that will is a bit more attractive, here's one of my ideas:

At the top of the glove, (you should first take them both off) make sure that (1) they are even in length (so that they do not look too strange when worn), and (2) that they are 1 to 1 1/2" (3-5cm) longer than what you want. Take either an elastic strip, the same color of the glove, or a strip of tights and wrap it around the arm at the point where the gloves will end. Make sure that it fits comfortably, but also that it will stay up if you fling your arms around wildly. Sew the ends together to create the loop.

Next, tack the ends of the gloves onto the loop, then roll it down two or three times. Now it is ready to sew. Just stitch over the fishnet threads and tack them onto the ends. Do this much in the same manner as the fingerholes. And there you have it *poof* a pair of homemade fishnet gloves! :)

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