Snow!! and Mittens Tutorial

***Edited 12-01-09 I just discovered the pattern I linked to is no longer available.  Here is a PDF file if you wish to make these mittens!** thanks

It snowed yesterday and last night!! Our first real snow of the winter! The kids were so excited to go out and play until their father said "You must clean your rooms first." "Aww, Dad, you ruin everything." Two of them didn't have mittens that fit, however, so I promised to make them some while they cleaned their rooms. I got the pattern here from the LDS Humanitarian Aid Website. **See link above.  The one I chose was Fleece Mittens with a Ribbing cuff . I think in future I would choose the "Fleece Mittens with Elastic band" they look much easier to sew. The directions look more thorough as well. I am writing this tutorial in case you decide to be crazy and do the hard mittens, like me. I do like how long the cuff turns out to be. That is my pet peeve about store mittens, the cuffs are never long enough to tuck into coat sleeves.

I didn't trust the fleece to keep the kids dry. I have some scraps of PLU (polyurethane treated fabric) left over from making diapers, and I added a layer of that on the outside to waterproof the mittens.

Trace the pattern pieces onto the shiny side of the PLU. (the wrong side). Trace 2 for each piece, remembering to flip over the thumb pieces (A & B) so that you get a right hand and a left hand mitten. Cut them out. You can just pin the pattern pieces to the fleece to cut it--pay attention to which way the stretch is supposed to go.

After cutting out 2 of each pattern piece. I basted the PLU to its corresponding fleece piece. Baste them wrong sides together as you will not be turning them. Don't forget to baste along the "bottom"--the straight part that will sew onto the cuff. This will divert disaster. (see more later.) **NOTE sew with the fleece on the bottom. That way, the machine feed-dogs will help to keep the fleece from stretching and distorting too much.




Here is pattern piece A sewn to pattern piece B (the thumb)




Here is the cuff, sewn and turned:


Here I have turned the cuff right-side out and then tucked it inside the mitten. Imagine this is the sleeve on a dress or shirt--that is why you want the cuff right side out. When you turn the whole thing, it will all work out right.


This is the trickiest part, sewing the cuff onto the mitten



Here is why you should baste across the bottom, to prevent this:


Here is the final product. I know, my skills are *great,* but this 7-year old was happy. You can see that after I fixed the major boo-boo, I accidentally sewed the cuff in inside out. A.k.A. didn't follow my own directions above. But snow time was wasting. I might fix it later...