Felted Mittens....with a tutorial

I love scoring wool sweaters (among other things) at the Thrift Store.  I swear, it's like people don't really know what they are giving away.

Over the summer I got a blue wool sweater.  It is a size XL and ENORMOUS, but I just knew that I would find a use for it some day.  I pulled it out of storage when I made the Anniversary pillow and it remained on my guest bed for the last week or so.  Yesterday I got out all of my winter coats, snowpants, hats etc. out of storage in the attic to wash and get ready for the flakes to fly.  I noticed that the only pair of mittens that I had in the bin were my heavy duty ski mittens.

Hmmmmm.

And so the question of the fate of the big bulky blue sweater was answered.

CUT IT UP and make some mittens out of it of course!

********************************Recycled Sweater Mittens*****************************

Using the wrist of the sweater as the wrist of the mitten, outline your hand on one of the sweater arms to cut out.

Cut out the mitten shape ( make sure that the seam of the sweater arm is on either the left or right of the mitten. )

I used the smoother non seam side of the sweater arm as the longer side of the mitten.

The stitched seam was used for the thumb side of the mitten.

Cut out an identical twin from the other arm of the sweater, making sure that the seam is on the same side as you used for the first one, making them mirror images of each other.

You will notice that the only part that needs to be stitched is the top and thumb of the mitten,  Using the arm of the sweater leaves little work to do in the stitching department.

  Starting at the thumb, I stitched around the opened part of the mitten, leaving some room to trim once the stitches were complete.   I used a contrasting yarn for the stitching detail and did 2 rows of stitches to make sure the seam was secure.

I stitched the other mitten the same way.  Then I cut off the excess trim leaving about 1/4 inch on the outer side of the contrast stitches.

 NOW, turn the mittens inside out so that the stitching is on the inside....and there you have it.  A new pair of mittens to keep you warm as the weather cools. 

Because unfortunately....... not all of us are as lucky as to be born covered in fur.

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FYI: I felted this sweater pre-mitten making.  After I cut it out though, I realized that it should have been put through the washer and dryer once more.  The stitches were not as tight as I would have liked them to be.

Another felting would have made it ideal.