make a pair of garden gloves
With the first few days of spring, I practically leapt out of doors, landing unceremoniously in the muddy plot of ground I call my garden. As I began digging around in the dirt, it didn’t take me long to start wishing for the 4 pairs of garden gloves I sold at last year’s yard sale. Oops!
Thankfully, today I found a way to make a ridiculously easy pair for myself. Here are the instructions I found (from Heather Ross, creator of the awesome book Weekend Sewing).
You can follow Heather’s clear, simple instructions in the link above…or you can use my rag-tag adaptation, outlined here:
1. Spread your fingers as wide as you can, and trace around your hand onto a sheet of copy paper, leaving a generous margin of about 1/4″ all around.
2. Cut the hand shape out and trace it onto a double thickness of stretchy fabric, right sides together. Trace it on the bias, so the stretch goes diagonally across the hand shape.
3. Pin the 2 pieces together and cut them out. Repeat to make the second glove.
4. Using a zig-zag stitch, sew around the edges, leaving the bottoms open.
5. Turn the bottom edges 1/4″ toward the wrong side and stitch over the raw edge with a zig-zag stitch.
Turn the gloves right side out and try them on. If they fit, give yourself a thumbs-up!
If not, try again. Different fabrics stretch different amounts, so you may need to adjust your tracing a little. These gloves are actually my 4th try (gasp) and they are by no means perfect. I tried to make them first out of a T-shirt, but eventually switched to some scraps of cotton ribbing I had lying around. They had more stretch and were sturdier. Heather Ross suggests a fabric with lycra or spandex, so I’m sure that would work best.
Of course, I can never truly follow suggestions…I always have to find my own way, even if that means making a “ridiculously easy” project 4 times for one positive outcome!
Oh my. What will I ever do with myself?
