Socks with a Hole Become Fingerless Gloves

I rescued this pair of cotton socks after Nick found they’d gotten a hole in the heel. They felt so soft and worn-in-just-right, that I couldn’t let them go to the trash yet, and planned to sew the hole up and wear them around the house.

They were put in the closet and forgotten about.

I recently found them again and decided to try turning them into fingerless gloves.

On cold days I wanted something to layer over those small stretchy gloves, that are thin enough to use with my camera. They don’t do much to keep your hands warm though, so what I needed something thick and warm to layer over them.

These could be a great way to salvage a nicer pair of socks, such as some pretty hand-knitted ones. And they work if the hole is on the toe or on the heel.

Here is how to make some :

Supplies: A pair or socks. Regular Thread. Embroidery thread in a complimentary colour. Scissors and a Sewing Needle.

(1) Cut the foot part off.
(2) From the tube part, cut a notch out for the thumb, that is about 1/2 an inch deep and an inch and a half wide. What you want is something that will be the right width (tighter better than looser) for your thumb to come through. If you want the gloves to come further down your fingers, make the deep cut longer than 1/2 and inch.
(3) Turn them inside out and using a whip-stitch sew up the seam that will run along the side of your hand.
(4) Cut a piece of embroidery floss that is about 30 inches long and divide the 6 strands into two lengths of 3 strands each.
(5) Now you want to finish the raw edges so they don’t fray or come apart. Leaving a 2 inch tail of floss (that you’ll tie to the other end when you finish), begin doing a blanket-stitch* around the raw edges of the part your fingers will go through. Once you get all around, instead of cutting the thread to do the thumb part, pass your needle right along and within the whip-stitches for that side seam (this will hide the embroidery thread). Blanket stitch around the thumb hole. Bring your embroidery thread back through the side seam to come up and meet the two inch tail you left at the beginning. Tie the two ends together.

* If you’re not sure how to do a blanket-stitch here is a good Youtube video that explains it visually.

If you’d rather, you can also finish these by doing a simple whip-stitch around the raw edges, or fold a bit of fabric under and hem them.

(6) This last step is a bit hard to explain in writing but is to hide your loose ends to give a nice finish. What you want to do is hide them withing the side seam, by passing them back through that it again. If the tail is too short to turn your needle, take the floss out of the needle, pass the needle along the seam and re-thread it. Then pull it through and off the needle. Clip the ends.

I hope this post saves many pairs of socks from the trash! Thanks for checking it out.
xo loulou