Mickey Mouse Gloves - Glowing Ninzerbean Fists of Retribution

From soft circuit seriousness to ridiculousness, make these Mickey Mouse Gloves.  Inspired by the friendly competition in attaining Instructables viewcount nirvana, you need a pair of these Glowing Ninzerbean Fists of Retribution to gain the upper hand.  That rabbly crew of iblers from across the pond will rue they day they stepped in the ring.  No human wagering, please.

This was a quick project to inspire others to create some soft circuits, integrate technology with clothing or accessories.  The easiest way  to start is to light up a garment with LEDs.  From there, you can advance to using arduinos, bigger arrays of LEDs, EL wire, electroluminescent panels, sensors and feedback controllers. 

I used my favorite dollar store bicycle flasher unit as the basis of all the electronics in this glove.  The glove is made using the same technique I did for the Blinking i-hoodie.

One more thing, don't Fn mess with the mouse...

Step 1: Whatcha Need...

This is mostly a sewing instructable.  I just placed the flasher unit in one of the flaps inside the glove to work.  I'll give suggestions later on mods you can do with the flasher.

You can sew everything entirely by hand.  I have a sewing machine and a serger.  It just makes things easier and faster to prototype.  I did have a few missteps as I went along but that is half the fun of creating something on the fly.

You will need:

Fleece fabric - can be any color you desire

Liner fabric.  I just salvaged fabric from an old T-shirt

Clear shelf liner paper or clear durable flexible plastic like a plastic tablecloth

Polyester batting or fiberfill

Bicycle safety flashers if you do not want to wire up your own LEDs.

Electrical tape for decoration.

Sewing notions

CAUTION:  Scissors, rotary knives, sewing needles, sewing machines, sergers are all pretty dangerous when you think about it.  Don't think about it. Just be careful and have fun making these designer mitts. 

Step 2: Measure Once, Wing It a Little

There is no pattern to follow.  I do not have a commercial version of the real Mickey Mouse Glove for reference so I was trying to eyeball it as I went along.

On a double layer of fleece fabric, place your hand to on it to trace out the shape of the glove.

Note that the glove only has three fingers and the thumb.  I guess it is more cartoonish that way.

Trace a big inch or two around the hand.  

Sketch the light panel opening where we will put the transparent plastic panel for the light.  Those represent the 3 striped ridges on the back of the glove.

Cut out a doubled piece of liner fabric that will just cover the portion where your hand goes.

This is to keep your hand from snagging on the fiberfill that goes against the light panel cutout.

Step 3: Light Panel Cutout

You should now have a set of fabric for the right and left hands.  When we sew it up and turn it inside out, the hands that it fits will reverse.

Cut out a double layer of the clear shelf liner paper.  Mine is adhesive backed.  

Peel the backer paper and laminate or cover the other piece.  I must have gotten confused with the paper sides of mine so I accidentally "sandwiched" the paper backer layer.

If you have the thick plastic tablecloth, no need to laminate it for strength.

Place the plastic facing against the fabric and trace the outline of your light panel cutout.
You may have to hold it up to the light to see.

Place the plastic front on the fabric.  The paper backer should be toward you.

Sew around the outline twice.

Trim excess plastic shelf liner around the sewn outline.

On the front, cut out the fabric area inside of the light panel cutout.

Step 4: Sew, Sew, Sew...

Time to start sewing the glove.

Have the double layer for one of the hands lined up.

I like to use my serger because it will trim and bind the edge of a seam as it goes along.

Lay a double layer of liner fabric on the bottom portion of the glove.
Do not have the liner fabric come up to the Vs of the fingers.  When I tried to turn the glove inside out, the  fingers were bound too tightly so you can see I had to cut them away from the finger Vs.

I roughed out the glove shape with the serger.  A serger cannot get into tight corners or turns.

I had to go back with a regular sewing machine to make the seams around the fingers and thumb.

Cut trim away to the seam allowance to free up the fingers.

Peel away the paper backer that is inside the light panel cutout.

You can now turn the glove inside out.

Step 5: Ring Around the Collar

Cut out a strip of fabric that is about 6 inches wide.

Fold lengthwise to start forming a tube that will be attached to the opening of the glove.

Place on the outside of the glove and sew or serge around the glove opening.
This layer will be thick so your machine may need a little prodding to get the needle through.

When folded out, the finished seam will be on the outside.

Fill up the tube with scraps of fleece or fiberfill.

Match up the ends of the tube.

Seam it closed to form a tubular cuff for the glove.

Massage the filling so you have a nice rounded cuff.

Step 6: Filler Up

Continue with stuffing the fingers of the gloves with fiberfill.

Place a layer of fiberfill under the plastic light panel opening.  This will act as the diffuser for the LEDs.

Place a bicycle flasher unit under the fiberfill but above the liner fabric.  I took the bezels off to make the light brighter.  Also, one had just white LEDs and the other had just red LEDs.  You never know what you get in a dollar store batch.

Add some electrical tape black outlines on the light panel opening.

Turn on and bask in the glow.

So, if you really wanted to mod this, you can wire it up for on/off/control switches like I did with the Blinking Hand of Righteousness turn signal glove.

If you have an arduino you can have the lights gain intensity as you squeeze the pressure sensors the more you clench your fists.

Add a sound module  when it strikes something.  Yeah, there are Hulk gloves out there.

Go make something cool with this.