Saturday, February 6, 2010

Embroidered Felted Sweater Mittens

I have seen these great mittens everywhere these days that are made out of felted sweaters.  And they all look so cool, and I have all of these sweaters that I bought last summer at a church sale to make lots of felted goodness with. I decided I would make a pair for myself.

So to do this, I traced around my hand, with my fingers spread apart to make sure there is enough wiggle room after I add  a seam allowance, on a piece of computer paper.  You want to make sure the thumb has a wide margin as well or you will not be able to get your thumb in the thumb hole. (ask my how I figured that out)
 If you have not already felted your sweater, run it through the washing machine and dryer a few times until it is felted the way you want.  A sweater made of at least 50% animal fiber will work best.
After you have felted your sweater turn it inside out and lay it down on a table making sure the bottom edge of the sweater front and back match up. This will be the cuff of your mitten.
lay your pattern of the sweater just above the cuff and pin in place with a few straight pins.  Cut around your pattern.
Unpin your pattern from the mitten pieces you cut out and keep the mitten pieces together.  Flip your pattern over and place it on the sweater above the cuff to cut out the other mitten.
 Take 1 layer of each mitten half; using yarn and a yarn needle, embroider the design of your choice.Be careful to keep your stitches away from the edges so they don't get lost in the seam allowance.  I used lazy daisy stitches, backstiches and french knots to make floral designs on mine.

Once you are happy with the way your stitching looks match up your mitten halves with their mates so the right side of the embroidery is in the middle, or right sides together, and sew them together using a long and narrow zig zag stitch on your sewing machine.  Make sure you backstitch at the beginning and end of your stitching to lock the stitches.

Flip your mitten right side out and away you go. 


Thanks to the creative jewish mom for this awesome opportunity to join your roundup!  I hope I followed all of your directions, it is my first after all!

2 comments:

Phyllis said...

These mittens are so beautiful. Thank you for sharing them with us.
-Phyllis

creative jewish mom said...

Hi Shawna, Thanks so much for the great project, I just love the idea of anything recycled and felted! I hope to see you again this week! All the best1