Although Coco Chanel said to take one thing off before leaving the house, I subscribe to the “more is more” belief. More color, textures, patterns, tassels, and sparkle. Always sparkle. In fact, I always say to put one more thing ON before leaving the house. As I was sewing the Hydrangea Dress sequin & ostrich feather redux, I had a good amount of leftover fabric that I wanted to try to use. A matching clutch? A choker necklace? And then late one night as I was drifting off to sleep I had it: opera length sequin gloves. After all, more is more! Wanting to make that extra statement, I chose to keep the palms of the gloves full of sequins. But for more of a functional option I’d recommend using a stretch mesh for the palms!

New to sewing sequins? Check out our guide!

Purchase Materials Used Below:

• 3 yards of Blush Baby Sequins on Mesh
• 2 yards of 6″ Double Ply Dark Navy Ostrich Fringe
• 1 yard of 1mm Light Pink Rattail Cord
• 1 spool of 305 Petal Pink 250m Gutermann Sew All Thread
• MDF111 – The Hydrangea Gown Sewing Pattern

Alternative Recommended Fabrics:

• Stretch Mesh
• Velour
• Stretch Lace

Note: The suggested yardage and fabrics above are for the gloves and dress. If you are looking to create just the gloves, we suggest 0.5-1 yard of a stretch fabric.

Notes:

Seam allowance for this DIY is 1/4″.

Stretch fabric is required for this pattern. Because the stretch can widely vary depending on the fabric you’re using, we’re going to start big and work our way down. Take it from me. I couldn’t get my hand through the wrist on my first glove, so we’re going to be generous with the sizing and alter as we go.

I used remnants leftover on the sides of the fabric from the hydrangea dress. They were two long pieces, wide enough for each arm.

How to make a template:

1. Using a tape measure, decide on how long you want the gloves to be: middle fingertip to arm. Add a 1/2″ for a 1/4″ double folded hem. Mark the length on fabric.

2. Measure the circumference of where the end of the glove will sit. Divide by 2, then add a half inch. Save that number for later.

3. Lay your arm down on the pinned fabric, splay your fingers as much as you can, and trace. I used dots for this step.

4. With the measurement from step 2, lay the ruler at the widest point of the glove arm so that the dotted lines are within the measurement. As you can see, I offset my measurement a bit since I wanted more room to accommodate the angle of my trapezium and thumb.

5. Bring the lines all the way to the fingers, easing them into the pinky and thumb dotted lines. We’re doing this because there isn’t a button closure at the wrist and we need to make sure that our hands can get through to the glove. Again, better to be too big than too small with this step! We can make it smaller later.

6. If you’re using a stretch mesh for the palm, transfer the markings to the mesh. Cut the hand off the correct palm, and sew that to the inner arm piece now. The white dots represent mesh fabric.

7. Take the other piece of fabric and lay it beneath your marked piece. Place a pin in each finger and down the length of the gloves. Do not cut the glove out yet!

How to sew and fit the gloves:

1. Sew down the length of the outer arm to the tip of the pinky.

2. Repeat on the inner arm to the tip of the thumb.

3. Sew the fingers.

4. Put the glove on inside out. If you need to make any adjustments to the circumference or finger depth, do so now.

You can see I adjusted mine 3 times since I wasn’t sure how tight I wanted these.

5. Trim the excess fabric from the fingers and arm to ¼”, then hem the glove.

Repeat on the other side.

Congrats! You now have your very own pair of fabulous opera gloves.