Mittens!

I know it's spring and that its not really the right time of year to be making winter warmers but lets be honest, the weather is hardly warm and sunny at the moment.

Here is a tutorial for making a cosy pair of mittens out of an old or unwanted jumper.

You will need:

- 1 Old jumper
- Scissors (paper and fabric if you have both)
- Pencil
- Paper (normal A4 will do)
- Sewing machine
- Needle and thread
- Pins
- Lining fabric (I have used some old cotton I had left over from an old project)


Instructions:

Making the pattern:

Trace around your hand, then draw a mitten shaped line about 1.5cm bigger than the outline. Finally add a 1cm seam allowance around the edge before cutting out. You should have something that looks like this:

Now that you have a pattern you can start cutting out....

I have put the pattern above the ribbing along the bottom of my jumper to give it a bit of extra length on the wrist. Make sure the jumper is taught and lying on a flat surface when you pin it to stop it from twisting.

Get ready to sew....

Pin the mitten right sides together then sew 1cm from the edge, leaving the bottom open. Use reverse stitch on the machine to reinforce the ribbing so that when the mitten is turned through the stitches don't tear.

I have had to make a slight adjustment around the thumb to make it longer. Turn your mitten through to the right way and try it on, you will see if you need to make any alteration as the fabric will not sit right and will probably be gathered/bunched.

Now repeat...

Cut out and sew 1 more mitten out of your jumper and 2 mittens out of your lining fabric. When cutting out the lining leave a section of fabric roughly the same length as the ribbing underneath the pattern, you will need this at a later stage to finish the mitten. It should look something like this...

Now make your finished mittens...

Trim the seam allowance around the edge of the mittens so that there is only a few milimetres fabric on the outside of the stitching line. This will reduce bulk once the mitten is turned through. You should have something that looks like this...

Turn through the jumper mittens so that the right sides are facing out. Do not turn through the lining.

Put the lining mitten on your hand as if you were wearing it with the wrong sides visible, take the jumper mitten and put this on top. You should be wearing a mitten that has the lining on the inside with the right sides facing in and the jumper on the outside with the right sides facing out. Take this mitten off and repeat on the other hand.

To finish...

Fold up the ribbing on the jumper. You should have the spare bit of lining fabric we cut out earlier poking out the bottom. Fold this in on itself so that the raw edge is between the lining and the jumper and therefore not visible. Pin the folded edge to the ribbing, trying to keep the same distance from the edge all the way round. You should have something that looks like this...

Now, using a needle and thread sew an overcast stitch around the fold line to secure it.

Repeat this process on the other mitten.


Fingers crossed you should now have a finished pair of mittens!