MacWet gloves review
MacWet gloves may not be your obvious choice for quilting. Some people swear by Machingers or gardening gloves, but when I was asked if I’d like to try a pair, I thought I would give it a go!
A bit of background info on MacWet as I’d not heard of them- they make grippy gloves mostly for outdoor sports in 14 sizes- including half sizes- and two lengths. I am testing the size 6 short cuff Micromesh ones. They appear to come in other colours too, not that that really matters. Retail on them is around £25-30.
They are nice and comfortable and fit perfectly, which makes a nice change as usually my fingers are too short! The fastener is snug too and they’re soft inside.
Since I was stippling the baby quilt (yes I finished piecing it this weekend and everything) I thought this may be a good opportunity to try it out. It’s not too big, but is larger than a crib quilt and it needs free motion stitching rather than my recent straight lines and spirals.
Wearing gloves takes a bit of getting used to when quilting. Despite these being quite thin, and therefore dextrous (remember I used to market gardening gloves until recently!) it took some getting used to, especially pulling out pins if they were close to the needle, though I often have problems with this anyway. Using a crochet hook or unpicker helped to open them up from there.
Movement was good once I got going, and I haven’t made any bunches on the back which is great news and very surprising for me. In the winter the garage where I sew will be cold to work in too so they should help with my circulation.
I managed to get half of the quilt done in 45 minutes which I’m very pleased with.
Sadly though, these gloves don’t like it when you unconsciously pet anything fuzzy that may choose to get involved whilst quilting. Oops.
In reality I think I will probably stick to using the gloves outside unless it’s really cold in the winter when I’m working. I can’t imagine I am one of those glove wearing quilters, especially in warmer months, but for dog walking, the occasional bit of clay pigeon shooting and our trip to Canada, these will be in my bag.
September 10, 2013 3:13 pm|
Those gloves are interesting. I use the Machingers because they are so thin and tight so there is no issue opening pins, etc. I cannot imagine machine quilting as fmq or straight line without gloves, my hands and arms would be exhausted trying to grip the fabric.
September 10, 2013 6:26 pm|
Hmm, I use some-quilting-company-that-I-can’t-remember’s gloves (not Machingers I know that), but they have rubber over the tips to help grip things. I might have been interested in these for winter photography, but they don’t look like the right kind of grippy, so I’ll have to stick with my Pittsburgh Steelers’ magic grippy gloves for that 😀
September 10, 2013 9:17 pm|
I cannot for the life of me FMQ, maybe that is because I have no gloves, maybe not; but I find the idea of sewing in gloves a bit odd!
September 12, 2013 5:38 pm|
they have my fake-name initials on them! How exciting!