Gardening Gifts to Sew

We've found some brilliant sewing patterns which will make perfect gifts for hardworking gardeners (or just for yourself if you want some pretty gardening gloves or an apron to match your borders!)

Autumn is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and if you are a gardening fan you'll still be busy clearing, tidying and getting everything harvested, deadheaded and tidied up ready for the new growth in the spring. Spend autumnal evenings sewing up some lovely gardening accessories for you or a friend.

Tool caddy

Transform this knitting caddy into a storage solution for small gardening tools - never misplace your tools again! Download your pattern from CraftWorld today!

Waterproof Kneeler

Ali Burdon has created a stylish waterproof kneeler in this month's edition of Love Sewing (Issue 17).  It's simple to make, gives you practice sewing with laminated cotton (this fabric is from Ochre & Ochre) and makes a perfect gift for an avid gardener.

With gardening in mind, we have found some clever patterns and quick sewing tutorials to make a selection of useful aprons, a garden tools utility belt and this fab pair of gardening gloves.

Handmade Gardening Gloves

You'll be the envy of all the neighbours when you do your weeding in a pair of pretty gardening gloves. 10 minute DIY gardening gloves

We found this really simple sewing tutorial to make a pair of gloves from an old sweater sleeve - so clever and will take minutes to sew up!  Keep an eye out in charity shops for old sweaters from now on!  This would work for little kids gardening gloves when they grow out of old sweaters too!  Not waterproof but they would protect your hands from throns and prickles and can just be bunged in the machine when they get muddy. We also found this upcycled gardening gloves idea on My Craft Evolution - Quick sew Gardening Gloves for Kids

Easy to Sew Garden Apron with Pocket

You can quickly sew up one of these useful little aprons.  When you're gardening you really only need a place for a few seeds, some string and a pencil with this kind of apron - if you want to carry tools you'd need a sturdier utility belt like below.  Some gardening aprons look very complicated with masses of pockets, but in reality are actually less practical than this quickie version!  Find the tutorial to sew this up yourself on design sponge.

Garden Utility Belt

This is perfect as unlike an apron the pockets aren't hanging in front of you where they'll get in the way.  We found a tutorial for this utility belt here on blog Littlestuff.  As it's attached to an existing belt you'll be sure it's secure and you can position the pockets where they hang comfortably.

Japanese Utility Apron

You've probably seen Japanese crossover style pinafores for little girls before. They're a really easy project for beginners. We love this idea for an adult Japanese apron, part of the Japanese Utility wear trend (that's a real thing honestly!).  

This would be perfect for popping on before you head out to the garden and feeling extremely stylish - or in fact just to wear around the house for housework if the frilly style apron is not your thing.  This apron is sold by Bookou at Home but if you wanted to make something similar yourself we've found an adult Japanese Apron pattern and tutorial for you here.  The back is less bulky than the kids version as it uses straps rather than lined fabric.  It also looks more utilitarian in this cotton/linen material.  Most of you could draft up your own pattern in no time. The only difficult part will be deciding on a fabric.

Harvest Gathering Apron!

If you're not a gardener you might look at this image and say "What on earth?" - if you grow your own or have fruit trees you will think it's genius! Many gardeners will have stretched a t-shirt using it as a pouch, if they haven't got a bag or trug to hand.  Simply tie it up to create roomy pouches for collecting your harvest and deliver it straight to the kitchen table for sorting - all hands free.  Find the step by step sewing tutorial here.

Happy sewing,

Betty