Upcycled Fingerless Gloves Tutorial

I am very excited to show you this new tutorial on how to make fingerless gloves from an old sweater. The result is quite pleasing so do try it out!

You will need the following materials:

1. an old felted sweater with snug fitting sleeves
2. sharp scissors
3. sewing machine
4. thread
5. ruler
6. pencil

You start with an old sweater. This can be a sweater you don't want anymore, or one that you find from the thrift store. Mine was a pale mossy green Gap fleece sweater from a thrift store.

Wash it in hot water and soap and then dry it all the way. This will felt your sweater so that you can cut it without threads running or fraying. I think my sweater shrunk a little because it seemed rather smaller when I pulled it out, but that made the sleeves fit snugly, so that was good.
I slid my arm through the sleeve and measured how long I wanted the gloves to be. For me, that was about 9 inches.
Use a pencil to mark the fabric length and use sharp scissors to cut neatly across.
Now turn the sleeve inside out.
Slide it onto your OTHER hand. Line the joint of the fabric with the outer thumb edge. Slide the sleeve to where you want your new fingerless gloves to sit on your hand (i.e., how much you want it to cover your fingers and thumb.)

Note where the space between your thumb and pointer finger will be. Make sure you don't mark it too close to your thumb. Otherwise, the thumb hole will be too tight.

Mark it with a pencil or use your other hand to pinch the spot, and pull off the glove.
Use sharp scissors to cut a slit at the marked spot.
Sew the edges of the new cut.
Turn the sleeve inside out and test to see if it fits properly. I think it's looking pretty good now!
Cut off the hem of the sweater. It will usually have a special design such as ribbing.

Fold it over and measure out a piece that will be the same width as your sleeve. Cut it out, leaving a little extra width for sewing the edges together.
Turn it inside out and sew the edges together.
Trim off any excess material. I wanted my ribbing to start at the joint between the sleeve and the extra hemming.
Slide the sleeve and the new hemming into place. Test the size. You may find that the extra hemming is looser than the sleeve. If so, sew the edges closer until it fits like the sleeve. Trim off any excess fabric.
The sleeve should be the right way out, but turn the hemming piece inside out. Slide it onto the sleeve so that the proper edges that you want to sew together are touching.
Line up the seams perfectly, and pin the hemming piece into place.
Carefully sew the edges together.
The finished fingerless glove will look like this. All the seam lines should line up. Do the same process for the matching pair.

I hope you like your new fingerless gloves. I happen to adore mine!

Don't forget to post photos of your finished work on the Flickr page here.

If you happen to like crocheting more, check out my crochet fingerless gloves tutorial here.

Enjoy!