Thursday, March 25th
Last week, the kids and I stopped by Goodwill with an eye toward reusing our finds. We picked up a few shirts in the men’s area to revamp into dresses for Miss Chief. Mr. B found nothing. (He thinks Goodwill stinks & never wants to go again. Ever.)
I was able to score this wool sweater that I planned on making into mittens. As it turns out, Papa saw me beginning to cut the sweater and asked if the mittens could be for him. He’d love a pair that have “flip-out fingers” that he could wear when he goes running on the weekends. The finger part is so that he can retie his shoes when necessary.
Step One: Slice the sweater apart. I planned on using the existing bottom ribbing for the mittens’ wrist.
Step Two: Keeping the sweater’s pattern in mind, slice up a vaguely hand-shaped bit.
Step Three: Fold down one of the bottom pieces and stitch across to hem it and prevent unraveling.
Step Four: Lay your (husband’s) hand on the mitten and figure out the final length of the mitten. Slice and hem the other bottom piece. {This step will make more sense in a moment, stick with me.}
Step Five: Sew the smaller bottom piece to one side of the mitten top. {Phew! I was worried you might read that as muffin-top and think we needed to eat less chocolate around here.}
You should now have three pieces. {That fourth bit is the already-finished-mitten for the other hand.}
Step Six: Line up the two top parts and lay the remaining bottom bit on its corresponding top bit. Make certain the fingertip-to-wrist part are the same length on both sides.
Step Seven: With the inside of the mitten facing one another, lay the unsewn half on top of the sewn half. Pin the two halves together. {The scissors are in the picture in order to show you that the top bit forms a pseudo-pocket.}
Step Eight: Sew around the outside of the mitten.
{Gratuitous assistant pictures.}
Step Nine: Stitch through all mitten layers to form a thumb and finger shape. Reinforce this seam by stitching again right next to your first outline.
Step Ten: Trim off the extra sweater fabric.
{Ta Da! You’re done! Now go have some chocolate.}
