I bought an old Viking 914 and learned by doing. (My wife is incapacitated) I always make my own plans so I bought some black poly fleece and cut out a piece 7.5 inches to fit my hand from the knuckles to a point several inches below my wrist. I made it about a foot long and cut out some blue jean material from the leg 7.5 inches long plus two inches for a lay over of the top and bottom edges of the fleece. After running the two 1/2 seams I trimmed them and lay my hand down and wrapped the material over it .. inside out and marked where I thought seams ought to go for the fit I needed .. 1.3 inches from the knuckle to the thumb .. three inches for the thumb hole .. and loose down to the bottom so I could get a sleeve under it. I need the denim over the top so when I feed, dirt and hay don't stick into the fleece.

Bought some black nylon and will do the same for a pair to go to Helmand Provence where my grand son is in the Marines. They need protection from the cold and to have their fingers free. Sent one in a package of 7.5 pounds of cookies and should hear back soon.

Found some old solid nylon lead rope material/rope .. have not seen any like this for years and got 100 feet of it and duct taped it every six feet and cut and burned it to keep it from fraying out. Bought lead rope snaps and metal clasps to bend over and slid a snap on and short doubled the end over and hammered the clasp down tight and put a knot in the free end. My Grand Daughter trains cutting bred colts and was over joyed. Her old lead ropes were about worn out.

Creative is making do with what you got and farm hands and cowboys have been doing that for centuries. This summer a GPS operated swather would not go into field 17 for my son between Boise and Sun Valley .. huge ranch .. King Hill country. The owner called a college graduate who came out and couldn't fix it and he called a High School kid and he couldn't fix it and he called a kid younger than he .. the the kid fixed it quick. It takes a passel of kids to raise a town.

It was farm kids that got our men off the beaches at Normandy .. wielded a blown up cat blade on a tank and he busted through the hedge row with it and surprised the Germans and blew their tracks off their tanks and put their machine gun nests out of commission.