More Mittens Without the Knittin'

Mittens made out of minky and sherpa...

One might say that I've recently been on a mission to keep my hands warm.

While the big mitten that hangs in my window is not really fulfilling that purpose, the fingerless gloves I posted about last week have been doing the job surprisingly well.

(By the way, in terms of "real time" — i.e., today and not when this post was written — we're basking in warmer weather than the kind that I described last week.)

Today's project was inspired by a recent AllFreeSewing newsletter. Something new caught my eye: a pattern to make faux fur and fleece mittens. The project is courtesy of Helen from HelloSewing.com. (A video tutorial is also available on YouTube.)

With still more of my Luminescent Ocean Dreams minky material at my disposal, I thought it might be fun to make matching mittens for my headband.

free pattern from HelloSewing.com...

The pattern is offered in three sizes. While I estimated that I could make do with the small, in the end, if I were to do it again, I'd choose the medium. This set fits around my hand and is doable overall, but the thumbs are shorter than I'd like.

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Originally designed for fleece with a faux fur lining, my mittens are lined with a sherpa-like material that was harvested from the same duster vest that yielded my neck cowl last year.

Sherpa lining...

I didn't find the sherpa difficult to sew, but I would recommend using clips instead of pins to secure the pieces together. They are more functional in keeping the "fluffy bits" under control so that they don't overspill the edges.

The tutorial advises a quarter inch seam allowance on both the exterior and the lining. I chose to do a scant quarter inch on the minky to allow room for the sherpa.

A lining and an exterior...

Just a note about my subbing out the fleece for minky. While minky is soft, fleece is stretchier, so make sure you're comfortable with your size selection if you're going to make the same substitution.

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I said last week that in cold temperatures, I go out with a double layer of mitts. I've owned various kinds of cold weather gloves — because you do need a certain amount of dexterity in some situations — and virtually none of them have ever kept my hands totally warm. The fact that fingers are separated into individual compartments in a glove makes it difficult to retain body (finger) heat.

Back view...

So even though it's a pain to have to pull a mitt off to do something, mittens are my preferred hand covering. I often wear a pair of those mini "one size fits all" knitted gloves underneath to avoid total exposure to the elements in case I need to take off the mitts.

Front view...

Anyway, what I'm leading up to is that these are quite warm. I don't have room to add another layer underneath given the small size, but these are adequate for normal winter days when it's not crazy cold.

It does fit...

The tutorial shows a method of turning the mitt right side out through a gap left on the top edge and then hand sewing it closed afterwards. For whatever reason, I tried doing this twice and managed to get it wrong twice.

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So I took an alternate route to the finish line. I stuffed the lining into the exterior, made sure it all fit correctly and then relied on my clips again to secure a basic hem. The minky had a natural tendency to curl towards the wrong side anyway, so it wasn't hard to do this.

Two ways to wear... 

The advantage of finishing it this way — apart from avoiding being wrong for a third time — was the lack of need for the hand stitching.

While I would love to be able to craft a pair of chunky knitted mitts like Bernie's, it's still pretty awesome to be able to make a pair of mittens without doing any knittin'!

'Til next...