DIY Mittens from (Accidentally) Felted Wool Sweater

January 10, 2010 by Danielle
Filed under: crafting, sewing

The past two mornings I’ve left for work it’s been snowing. One morning my car door was actually frozen shut. The next day I was almost late because I sat in my car so long looking at the snow. It’s kind of a big deal here. On these snowy days, by the time I get to work my hands are nearly nonfunctional due to the cold. This got me thinking: if driving five minutes in the cold sucks, how much more is walking to school (for an 8 o’ clock class, nonetheless) next week going to suck? I live really close to campus, and I generally enjoy the walk, but I feel like said walk will be considerably less enjoyable if I don’t take certain cold-protection measures. Hence, last night I decided to make a hat and mittens to protect me from the cold next week! This post deals with the mittens portion.

To make this hat and mittens set, I used BurdaStyle’s free (!) Felted Wool Mitten pattern made by Fabricitis. The hat was the result of a bit of trial and error, but I’m pretty pleased with the outcome. I started with a (favorite) wool cardigan that Kyle accidentally shrunk a couple of months ago:

The yellow sweater, included for scale, is a size S that I happened to be wearing at the time. I used to the shrunken green sweater, originally a size M, to make the hat and mittens.

BurdaStyle's Felted Wool Mitten Pattern by Fabricitis, part 1

Burdastyle's Felted Wool Mitten Pattern by Fabricitis, part 2

Rather than following the mitten pattern exactly, I folded it in half and used the sleeves of my sweater, saving myself a few stitches. Cutting the thumb hole proved a little difficult this way, but I just puckered the fabric where the thumb hole was supposed to go, snipped off the piece between my finger and thumb, and then widened and cleaned up the resulting hole. Like this:

The making of a thumb hole.

Sewing the thumbs in was definitely the hardest part. After following Fabricitis’s instructions and sewing the thumb piece up to the tip of the finger, I turned the piece right-side out and inserted it into the wrong-side out glove.