Easy Fingerless Gloves

Fingerless gloves are an excellent way to keep your hands warm while still maintaining use of your fingers.  This is especially important for those with RSI, or poor circulation due to any number of ailments. 

Who needs fingerless gloves?  My husband's grandmother is a manic crocheter, but her hands will seize up if they're not kept warm - this is a trick that's worked well for her in the past.  I type lots as part of my job, so need to keep my hands warm to help stave off RSI.  They're also great for biking, driving, handling money, and anything else where you want your hands and knuckles covered but need fingers.

Since regular stretchy gloves are so ridiculously cheap, there's no reason to buy pricey fingerless gloves when you can make them yourself.  Here's what you need to know!

Thanks to carleyy for the video!

Step 1: Buy Gloves & Find Scissors

First, buy yourself a cheap pair of gloves.  I find that the slightly stretchy ones work best, as the fingers will still fit snugly after you trim them. 

I'm also a fan of stripey gloves, as they give you cut lines!

These gloves came from Old Navy, $2.50 for two pair.  I got 4 pair for a whopping $5 and shared the rest around the office.

You'll also need scissors!  A nice pair of fabric scissors will do the job cleanly and quickly, but any scissors will suffice.

Step 2: Identify Cut Points

Bend your fingers, and figure out where you'd like to cut.  Remember that the glove will stretch back from your cut point, so cut higher than you think you need to.  You can always cut more off later!

I chose to cut at the first knuckle, and the gloves retracted to the second knuckle.  Stretchy!

Step 3: Cut!

Pick a finger, any finger!  Bend your finger just a bit so there's a spot to insert the scissors, and cut a notch.  (Please, don't cut your finger - that would be dumb.)

Here you have a choice:  do you want flip-top fingers, or do you want to remove the fingertip entirely?  I tested flip-top, then ultimately chose to go with fully fingerless as the bobbing tops annoyed me while typing.  Depending on your application, keeping the tips available may be a useful option, even if they're not terribly pretty..  I'd suggest trying it, as you can always cut them off later.

Now, continue cutting on your chosen finger.  If you want to go flip-top, cut a notch just big enough to pop your finger out, say 1/3-1/2 way around the fingertip.  If you want to cut the whole thing off, you can just notch (or note the line, if you've got stripey gloves), remove the glove, and cut an even line.

Step 4: Repeat

Repeat the process with the other four fingers of your first hand.

Step 5: Check Your Work

Are you happy with this glove? 

Test the fingertip cover option, and remove them if you like. See if you've cut them to the right length - can you adequately bend all the joints you need to, and do you have enough fingertip showing?  Test them while typing, knitting, or any other activity - can you still move through the proper range of motion? 

Trim ends as necessary.  If you need the fingers to be longer, buy more gloves and try again.

Step 6: Copy on Other Glove

This one is easy!  Remove your first glove, lay palm-to-palm against the second glove, and trim to match.  I just cross-checked for color stripes against my first glove.

Step 7: Wear!

Now, wear and enjoy your gloves!  Have a warm and pain-free winter.

I'm hoping to reduce my chance of developing RSI problems in my wrists - hopefully you'll have nice warm hands and finger joints for whatever you do.  If you make your own pair, I'd love to see a picture and learn what you're using them for!

Comments

[hahahippo=)]

Wait but don't the gloves unravel at the top where they were cut? I have tried to make some fingerless gloves like this and they unraveled a bunch!

[BatchDesigner]

i don't get it duct tape would be suitable ^^ just use a little bit on the tops of each glove

[CosmicBrambleclaw]

mine are ^^; I'll try to find a way to stop the unraveling, if you're still needing help with that

[TheCommander]

perhaps melting the ends would stop the unravel but then it might be scratchy...

[CosmicBrambleclaw]

Im using mine for a Kirito (Sword Art Online) cosplay for my school's costume day tomorrow, afterward I think I'll use them while I finish my crochet pair I started and never finished XD, of course i have lots of other crochet projects I wanna do, so these gloves will get plenty of use in the coming winter as I make up blankets and scarves and whatnot, so long as the finger's stop unraveling XD

[freeza36]

step one: get gloves
step two: cut fingers off (of gloves)

[jamesdude]

I want a keyboard like that.

[canida]

It's a kinesis. Takes a bit of time to get used to the swap-over, but it's somewhat less likely to break your hands if you type lots.

[carpfluff]

i love the stripes.

[l8nite]

gardening gloves also work well and theres no unravelling problems. leather work gloves can also be cut but sometimes you need to restitch some of the seams, I don't have feeling in part of my left hand due to an accident so the leather glove protect from more than cold. Nicely done "ible" with quality pics !

[Lithium Rain]

I did this with a pair of fleecey purple gloves...pretty, but I learned that the fleece seems to attract dirt if you use them outside for much. :(

But I want *that* pair!!!! So cute.

[kittknight]

I actually tried this about a month ago, before reading your instructable and the ends did fray, but if it is possible, maybe you could melt the tips a little just to keep them from fraying, but you might not be able to do that because of the material the gloves are made of. I do like the cut of glove Idea.

[mirileh]

how do you keep the ends from unraveling after cutting the gloves?