How-Tuesday: Quick Mittens

anda

Story by Anda

Published on Jan 18, 2011 in Make

Photo by utopiapedia

Using a few high fiber ingredients that might already be lurking in your craft kitchen, you can stitch up a pair of cozy mittens to protect your paws. Anda Lewis Corrie, long-time Etsy Admin and current force behind the Etsy Labs in Berlin, has cooked up this wintry tutorial for those of us with an appetite for recycling in this week’s How-Tuesday post.

Recycle an extra sweater into a pair of folksy mittens. In a half hour you’ll have warm hands.

Supplies you’ll need:

  • A sweater, any knit will do
  • Paper & pencil
  • Scissors & pins
  • Lightweight yarn and a large needle

Directions:

Trace your hand on the paper, adding a little extra space around your thumb and along your wrist. Cut out.

You’ll want the cuffs of your sweater or the bottom hem for the openings of your mittens. So decide which part of your sweater you prefer to use, flip inside-out, lay flat and pin pattern through both layers.

Sew about 1/2″ around the pattern with a zig-zag stitch. Remember to leave the cuff open!

Note: The reason I don’t cut out the pieces first is to make it easier to handle and forgiving of alignment mistakes. But, if you’re a sewing pro, do this step however you like.

Trim around stitching and remove pins. Flip your mitten right-side out and do a little shaping to make it look right.

At this point, you have a mitten. You can make a second one and call it a day. But I find that mittens in this style tend to kind of look like you’re wearing socks on your hands. Decorative blanket stitch to the rescue!

Blanket stitch around the edges of your mitten with a contrasting yarn. Repeat all steps for second mitten. You’re done!

We did this project at a Craft Night at Etsy Labs Berlin recently. Check out photos here. (Dieses Tutorial ist in Deutsch verfügbar Etsy.de.)


If you make your own recycled mittens, please share a photo with us in the How-Tuesday Flickr group!

Make a Chipmunk From a Lonely Glove | More How-Tuesday Posts | Mittens on Etsy

Discuss: 151 comments

Related Items

151 comments

Sign in to add your own