• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • DYEING
    • Eco Printing and Eco Dyeing
    • Yarn Dyeing
    • Fabric Dyeing
    • Natural Dyeing
  • FELTING
    • What is Felting? A Beginner’s Guide
    • How to Needle Felt (for Beginners)
    • Wet Felting Tutorials
    • Needle Felting Tutorials
    • Fiber 101
  • PATTERNS
    • Pattern Roundups
    • Free Indie Crochet Patterns
    • Free Indie Knitting Patterns
  • CRAFTS
    • Home Crafts
    • Holidays
      • Christmas
      • Easter
      • Gift Ideas
  • E-BOOKS

FiberArtsy.com logo

menu icon
go to homepage
  • DYEING
  • FELTING
  • CRAFTS
  • PATTERNS
  • E-BOOKS
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • DYEING
    • FELTING
    • CRAFTS
    • PATTERNS
    • E-BOOKS
  • ×

    DIY Fingerless Gloves from a Sweater

    Updated: Jan 27, 2022 by Annette Browning

    Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links. If you click and buy, we may receive a commission.
    See Disclosure for details.

    Easy way to upcycle and repurpose an Old Sweater into fun DIY Fingerless Gloves

    Like many others, I am trying very hard to be more environmentally aware and responsible. One way to do that is repurposing old clothing. So, I decided to find out how to make DIY fingerless gloves out of old sweaters.

    Lucky for me, our local Goodwill had a great selection of old men’s sweaters which means more fabric for me! The only other thing you really need is a super sharp pair of fabric scissors and needle & thread.

    Basic steps for making fingerless gloves from an old sweater:

    DIY Fingerless Gloves from a Sweater
    1. Cut sleeves off the sweater
    2. Turn a sleeve inside out, fold over 1″ of the cut edge, pin and sew
    3. Hem the edge
    4. Place hand inside the sleeve and pin fabric between thumb and index finger. Sew the thumbhole
    5. Repeat steps to make the second glove
    DIY Fingerless Gloves from a Sweater

    Table of Contents

    • How to Make Fingerless Gloves from an Old Sweater
    • Supplies for DIY Fingerless Gloves
    • How to Measure and Cut the Sleeve
    • How to Hem the Glove
    • Sewing the Thumb Hole
    • How Do You Make Fingerless Gloves from Socks?

    Personally, I really love fingerless gloves. They are generally not as bulky as regular gloves or mittens and you can still do your work like writing or typing on the computer. And how cool is it that we can repurpose old sweaters or sweatshirts to make our own fingerless gloves.

    I was shocked to discover that the majority of clothes that are donated to thrift stores end up in the landfill. Yes! Most of the clothes we give away, get thrown away. That was very upsetting!

    Well, we can do something about that. So, I have been on a quest to figure out different ways to make things out of old sweaters, t shirts, blue jeans and more.

    Related: DIY Boot Cuffs from an Old Sweater
    Related: What to do with Old T Shirts (17 Cool Ideas)

    Easily sew fingerless gloves from a sweater



    How to Make Fingerless Gloves from an Old Sweater

    I don’t know about you but I am not the best at knitting or crochet. Honestly, I can crochet a rug or coaster but that is probably as good as it gets. But, this easy project is perfect for me.

    Repurposing a sweater into fingerless gloves is so easy to do! And they are also much easier to sew than regular mittens. This whole project is a super quick with minimal sewing and absolutely no knitting or crochet required.

     

    Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links which means if you click and buy,
    we may receive a small commission. See full Disclosure for details.




    Supplies for DIY Fingerless Gloves

    • Old Sweater
    • Fabric Scissors or
    • Rotary Cutter and Cutting Mat
    • Needle and Thread or
    • Sewing Machine
    • Sewing Pins
    • Ruler
    Old Sweater from a thrift store
    Old Sweater for making DIY Fingerless Gloves
    Supplies needed to make fingerless gloves from the sleeve of a sweater
    Fabric Scissors, Needle & Thread



    How to Measure and Cut the Sleeve

    The first thing you have to do to make these DIY fingerless gloves is decide how long you want your gloves to be. This is entirely up to you.

    I personally, have several pairs of handmade fingerless gloves, some on go to my wrist while other reach the elbow.

    I have found that the short ones don’t interfere as much when I’m working on the computer. The longer gloves come in handy when the weather is really cold and I can pull my coat sleeves over them.

    That said, cut your gloves a little longer than you think you need. You can always go back and make them shorter.

    Now, just take your fabric scissors or rotary cutter and cut the sweater sleeves about 1″ longer than you want your final gloves to be. This is to allow for the hem.

    I wanted my gloves to be 9″ long so I cut the sleeves 10″ from the cuff.

    Please note: If your sweater is very bulky, you may want to pin the edges before cutting them to keep it from raveling.

    Cut the sleeve of the sweater



    How to Hem the Glove

    The first thing you need to do is hem the glove to keep it from raveling. Turn the sleeve inside out and then fold over about 1″ of the cut edge.

    Next, pin the folded edge in place and then stitch all the way around.

    As I said before, if your sweater is particularly bulky, you may need to stitch two seams. (Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of this step)




    Sewing the Thumb Hole

    Stitch the thumb part of the glove

    Just so you know, creating a thumbhole in the glove is completely optional. Many diy fingerless gloves I have seen do not have one. That said, I prefer for my gloves to have a little more structure so that they don’t move up my arm.

    You now need to figure out where to stitch the seam for the thumb. It may be helpful to have another person for this step.

    Turn the sleeve inside out and place one of your hands inside the sleeve. Now, carefully place pins where you need to stitch your seam. Then, on the inside of the sleeve, sew a ‘V’ between thumb and forefinger.

    I double stitched mine to make sure it would hold up. Finally, you want to carefully cut out the ‘V’ making sure to not cut through the stitches.

    Now you just turn the glove right side out and repeat the above steps with the second sleeve. My sleeves were nice and snug on my arms. If yours are too loose, simply fit them to your arm, pin and sew along the inside.

    That’s all there’s to it. This really is a great way to repurpose an old (maybe ugly) sweater. And hey, these fun fingerless gloves are also a great gift idea for Christmas or Birthdays.
    Enjoy!
    Annette
    FiberArtsy




    How Do You Make Fingerless Gloves from Socks?

    Personally, I have not tried to make any fingerless gloves from old socks. However, I did find this great article which shows you not only that, but also how to sew and how to knit fingerless gloves.

    Related Fabric Crafts

    • DIY Boot Cuffs from an Old Sweater
    • Wine Bottle Gift Bag from an Old Sweater
    • How to Make TShirt Yarn
    • 17 Fabric Scraps Projects
    • How to Make Denim Yarn from Old Jeans
    • How to Stencil on Fabric and Paper
    • 25 Fall Crafts with Burlap Fabric
    • Paint those Ugly Shorts – Fabric Dyeing 101
    • Fun Spring Fabric and Fiber Crafts
    • 23 Tie Dye Ideas and Projects
    • How to Tie Dye a Heart Shape
    • What to do with an Old T Shirt
    • 12 Denim Crafts Projects
    Fingerless Gloves from a Sweater, Fiberartsy.com
    Fingerless Gloves from a Sweater
    DIY Fingerless Gloves from an Old Sweater

    DIY Fingerless Gloves from an Old Sweater

    Sharing is caring!

    8720 shares
    • Share

    About Annette Browning

    Annette is a long time fiber artist and former alpaca farm owner. She shares her love of dyeing, felting, crochet and knitting as well as other craft projects.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Tanya @ Mom's Small Victories says

      February 19, 2015 at 10:55 pm

      Love this idea! I have plenty of old sweaters I could make warm, cozy things with! Thanks for sharing with Small Victories Sunday Linkup and hope you join us again this weekend! Pinning to our linkup board.

      • Annette says

        February 20, 2015 at 5:15 pm

        I absolutely will! Thank you for hosting!

    2. Kathleen says

      October 27, 2015 at 8:38 am

      That is so very clever and it looks so good and warm. Thanks so much for coming to the party with this helpful post.
      Fridays Blog Booster Party #29
      Kathleen

    3. Christy says

      October 30, 2015 at 1:05 pm

      This is really clever. I have several old wool sweaters that have seen better days and shrunk a bit by mistake. They would be perfect. Thanks for posting.

      • Annette says

        October 30, 2015 at 4:04 pm

        Yes! Shrunk and a bit felted is even better. Let me know how it turns out!
        Thanks for visiting, Christy 🙂
        Annette

    Primary Sidebar

    WELCOME! We share tutorials for Dyeing Yarn and Fabric, Natural Dyeing, Eco Printing, Felting, Knitting and Crochet Patterns as well as Crafts.

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

    Footer

    stay connected

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

    What’s New!

    image of yarn with different colors of dye
    image of a tie dyed shirt


    FELTING         DYEING         PATTERNS        CRAFTS         E-BOOKS         RESOURCES        ABOUT      DISCLOSURE      ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT        PRIVACY POLICY       


    As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


    Affiliate Advertisements: This site participates in various Affiliate Programs. This simply means that if you click through an affiliate link and buy a product, we may get a small commission, at absolutely no extra cost to you.

    Copyright © 2023 FiberArtsy.com on the Brunch Pro Theme

    8720 shares