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Tutorial Tuesday - Recycled Wool Mittens & Mitten Doublers Edited to add: I take it for granted that everyone knows the true "first step"... felt (wash it in a hot wash & throw it in the dryer) your sweater before you cut your mitten pieces. This will prevent your pieces from unraveling.

The first step is to create your pattern. I don't know how to make patterns to scale online, but hopefully you can create one for yourself, based on their shapes. It isn't too hard, considering that I made a pattern for my son's mittens the other day from eyeballing the adult pattern. I originally started with this pattern, but it was much bigger than what I wanted, so I tweaked it until I got my current pattern. Maybe that will work best for you too. If you eyeball it, the important thing to remember is to make sure your 2 palm pieces end up being a total length of about 1/2" longer than your back of hand piece, since you will be sewing the 2 pieces together, that will be your seam allowance. You will be starting with 4 pieces... the back of the hand, the 2 palm pieces, and the cuff. The cuff can be the cuffs of the sweater (what I used here), or a piece of ribbing from the sweater sewn into the same tube shape. Ok, ready? Sew your 2 palm pieces together in the middle, wrong sides out, creating the thumb. Now sew the back of hand piece to your palm piece, remembering wrong sides out. You will want to move the thumb out of the way as you go. If you are making Mitten Doublers, that's it... you're done!

Making mittens? Now it's time for the cuff. Take your cuff & stick it inside with the cut edges lined up. When you look inside, you should see the "right " side without the seam. Now sew your cut edges together, stretching a little as you go. Now you are done. Flip them right side out, roll up your cuff, & enjoy your cozy, eco friendly, cute, naturally insulated mittens! At this point many people like to secure their cuffs with a button or decorative stitching, but I like to leave them as-is, so they can be rolled down & stuck in a coat sleeve when it's extra cold or snowy. The choice is yours!
Posted by Resweater at 6:09 AM Labels: cashmere, diy, Mitten Doublers, mittens, recycled wool, sweaters, Tutorial Tuesday Liliumlis said...

Thank you for the tutorial! Just a quick question: what stitches are you using?

October 26, 2010 at 8:05 AM 
Your welcome! I just use a straight stitch... it's all my machine knows how to do ;) That's why I stretch a little as I go on the cuff, so there is some give.

October 26, 2010 at 8:08 AM 
so, there are sems inside? or is it lined?

October 26, 2010 at 8:57 AM 
Janetta, there are seams inside, but I only use soft wools, so it is not uncomfortable. If you use the doublers there are no seams against your hands though. If you want to permanently line them, you can make doublers, but sew them in. Just put them inside the mittens before you sew the cuff on & you will have a seamless lining. Did that make sense?

October 26, 2010 at 9:08 AM 
Thanks so much for this! I always have trouble finding warm enough mittens, but these will definitely solve that issue.

October 26, 2010 at 12:23 PM 
A friend gave me mittens like these a few years ago and they are my FAVORITE! They have a fleece lining sewn in. I've always wanted to make some but I think that I just needed your tutorial. :) Thank you!

October 26, 2010 at 5:36 PM moment to moment said...

ohh I love it, cannot wait to see what other goodies you have on here!!

October 26, 2010 at 7:03 PM Maggie's Raggedy Inn said...

You are so smart.. I love following your work. Thank you,


October 27, 2010 at 4:47 PM kris10dale said...

Thank you so much for this tutorial! You must have read my mind, because I was searching your blog yesterday to see if you had a tutorial on them - lol.

Do you put your sweaters in a pillowcase when you wash them? I've read that it cuts down on "fluff" going down the drain, but it seems like they didn't felt well when I did it the other day.

Love your blog! :)

October 27, 2010 at 7:36 PM 
I don't put my sweaters in anything when I felt them. I have a strainer in the drain to catch the lint, so none goes down the drain. I have washed hundreds of sweaters in my machine & have never had a problem. I attribute this to 2 things... I never use lanolin, or anything with lanolin, in my machine (all lanolizing is done by hand outside of the machine). The other thing is that I always do a regular clothes load immediately after felting sweaters. I feel like that flushes out the lint & doesn't give it a chance to dry against anything in the machine.

October 27, 2010 at 8:17 PM 
Thanks so much. Smart tip about washing regular clothes right afterwards. I'll remember to do that. :)

October 28, 2010 at 6:32 AM 
I agree with kris10, great tip about washing a regular load after felting.

I just made a bunch of these tonight. The sweaters were a little stiff (note to self, don't use the sanitize setting on your sister's front loading washer), but I decided to try it out anyway. My eyeball needs to be better calibrated, but with 7 people in the house, I should be able to make the mittens work for someone :)

To avoid complaints about stiff seams, I just used a zigzag stitch and left the seams on the outside (also because the wool was too stiff to turn right side out, oops).


November 3, 2010 at 7:10 PM lildee said...

Just to clarify, is it a 1/4" seam allowance or 1/2"? Your pictures look like 1/4" but I want to make sure.

December 7, 2010 at 1:44 PM 
Yep, I make a 1/4 inch seam.

December 7, 2010 at 2:54 PM