Homemade Gardening Gloves for Kids

I saw a friend of mine make these last spring and thought they were adorable!

So I had to try it myself.  You will need one old sweatshirt (and a sewing machine, and thread, etc.).

Turn the shirt insideout and lay your child's hand down on an edge. If the sleeve is wide enough you can use it so that the shirt cuff makes the perfect wrist band of the glove. If the sleeve is too small, use the bottom hem of the sweatshirt so that the wasit band becomes the wrist band.

Now trace around your child's hand (nice and big!). If you are feeling brave, trace all the fingers. If you aren't ready for that kind of pressure, just trace it like a mitten (little hands can still do big things with mittens).

Now pin the two pieces together, then carefully cut them out.

Sew your two halves together making sure to use a strong, tight stitch setting.

Ta da!


If you are making gloves for bigger kids (or for yourself) who are going to be touching pricklier plants, you can line your gloves with an extra layer of fabric. The bottom end of a pant leg would make a nice, thick layer of protection for your fingers.

Sounds simple right, so here is my attempt.  (note: I couldn't get my pictures to load in order, so you'll have to think of this as a fun puzzle to figure out as you try to look at the pictures in order!)

6. Inside and outside of gloves cut out.

7. Turn the sleeve in-side-out and stitch them together.

2. Two beautiful hands side by side.

1. I decided to add an extra layer of jean protection. So I traced a hand on an old cut off pant leg. I used my own hand knowing that things get smaller when you sew them, so I figured my own hand would turn into a toddler hand in the end.

3. Use an old sweatshirt sleeve as the cuff of your glove.

4. I found this old beauty in my garage (and yes, those are shoulder pads in it! This sweatshirt deserved to die).

5. Lay your glove template (or your hand, or in this case the inside layer of denim) at the cuff of the sleeve and trace around it.

8. Ta da!  Okay, so they are a little ugly. I can admit that. The palm is huge and the fingers are itty bitty.  But that works for little kids right?

So cute! I love 'em!

Well, almost. I hoped they would be cute. I wanted to love them. But a few things went wrong. So let me point out my mistakes to that you may learn from them.

Pay attention to your fabric. I cut two hands out of denim at the same time without checking to see if the bottom layer was even whole. It wasn't. You can see my wonky cut hand in picture number 2.

Start small. I tried to do gloves WITH a lining before I had even seen if I could handle making a pare of simple gloves.  I would recommend making mittens first, then gloves, then lined gloves.

Fat fingers! My fingers were way too skinny, so by the time all the layers were stitched together and turned back right-side-out, they were so narrow and short it was ridiculous! Fingers that should have fit me, actually fit my six year old.

I guess that's all I did wrong. Bad fabric, over zealous pattern, and misshapen hands. That's it. Just three tiny mistakes.  In my defense, the gloves are still completely useable. They fit my youngest child, and he was totally happy with them.

So will they win any awards? No. But they work, and that is all that matters.

Marcia