DIY: Upcycled Sweater Mittens

1. Introduction and Items Needed: Hi, it's Jan from you. Make it simple dot com. I love making things from up cycled wool sweaters. One of the first projects that I made with a wool sweater was a pair of cozy, warm mittens. I loved how they felt on my hands. They were very easy to make. And I'm gonna show you how to make a pair of mittens from wool sweaters step by step. A very easy project to Dio. If you haven't enrolled in my previous class on how toe felt and shrink down wolf sweaters , I encourage you to do that. Then you will know how to get and, um, acquire sweaters for projects not only sweater mittens, but other things that I'll be teaching as well, so encouraging. Turn role in that class. If you haven't already in the next section of the class, I will show you how to measure your hands correctly so that you can get the perfect size and perfect fit. Guy Adams you'll need to make your mittens is the downloadable patterns. Cut out a pair of paper scissors, a pair of fabric, scissors, straight pins and six safety pins. You'll need your felted wool sweater pieces. Just make sure they're pretty consistent in weight and texture, and you can mix it up and use different colors. For the linings of your mittens. You will need a piece of police or a cashmere sweater or another type of thin sweater. I like to use up cycled sweatshirts or things that are soft and cozy. You also need a cuff for the mittens. You can use an existing cuff of a bottom, the bottom part of a sweater, the bottom four inches of a sweater. Or you can use an existing the existing cuffs from another sweater. Bottom four inches of a sleeve of US water for the cuff, Gather your goods and let's get started. 2. Measuring Hands for Proper Fit: the way, one of the first things you want to do is determine what size pattern you need to use, so you'll need Teoh grab a measuring tape. If you don't have a measuring tape, you can wrap a string around your hand and then measure the string on a ruler. Otherwise, we're gonna take a measuring tape and wrap it around the biggest portion of your hand just below the fingers. It's a wrap that around, and then bring your fingers in kind of make a fist so it widens, widens the hand out of it and measure how wide that ISS and then jot that down. That is the width measurement of your hand. Now we'll go ahead and measure the length of your fingers from the bend of your wrist. Measure to the finger the longest finger middle finger and determine what, how long that is and jot that down. That is the length measurement. Now you can go to your you're the first page of your pattern piece, and there will be a chart measuring chart and determine what size that is and go ahead and start cutting out your pattern. 3. Choosing the Mitten Colors: When you're choosing sweet, different sweaters to make your projects, don't be afraid to mix it up a little bit. As you can see, I like to use different colors and kind of whimsy. Fun, little things. But if you want to, you can make the whole mitten out of just one color, one sweater or you can mix it up like I have done. Don't be afraid to use different, um, prints and colors in one project, and also I like to the outside of the sweater. Um, is not always the one that I use on the outside of my projects. I like to use the I like to flip it inside out and use in the texture of the inside of the sweater sometimes has a lot more character than the shown outside sweater, so don't be afraid to mix things up and be creative. And I hope youll have fun choosing the different sweaters for your project. If you have questions about what to what kind of sweaters to use and mawr. If you want more information on how to choose your sweaters and how to care for your sweaters and get them ready, make sure that you're in rolling. Make sure that you enroll in my free, um up cycling and felt in class 4. Cutting Out: now that you've decided what colors of sweater is going to be, what part of your mitten let's go ahead and cut them out? So you take your pattern piece and light, lay it on the the fabric. You decide which side you want to be the right or the wrong side. And if this water has a lot of stretch, you'll want to put the stretch on the width. There's a line there on the pattern and make sure that line is going on the stretch. Usually when you felt this sweaters, it has an evenly and even stretch to it, or sometimes not a lot of at all. Flip the pattern over once you cut one out and pin it in place and then cut it out. If you don't flip the pattern, you'll have to pieces facing the same way you need a left and a right. So the trick and how to keep those straight is to take a safety pin and pin it on the right side of the pattern piece. Take your other pieces. You want to make sure you maximize those sweater the yardage of a sweater by going getting this close to the edges of you can. If the print has a line, it's a print. Has stripes or lines on it? You'll want to match up the notch with the stripe. On the other piece. You don't really. It doesn't really matter if you're these mittens could be kind of whimsy and sporadic and the way that you use the fabric. But if you wanted to line things up and then go ahead and decide which side you want to be , the outside and put a safety pin on top of it. The If you want to maximize your time and you have the yardage of fabric to do, just flip it over into double the fabric. That saves you a little time by cutting one. Getting to pieces cut out at the same time, and that way you ensure that you have a left and a right, just like you would have flipped the pattern. Go ahead and put your safety pins on. So now, to cut the couple pieces, you can take the bottom part of the sweater or use existing sleeve cuff that you cut from this water. Measure up four inches from the bottom edge and cut it off, so it's four inches. If you want to use the bottom part of the sweater that the bottom ribbing edge. Just go ahead and measure four inches up from the bottom edge and cut that and the length of the cuff will be eight inches. So you measure eight inches and cut that and you will need to of those and then you'll be ready to go, so either way works well and then I'll show you how to make a seem. And so those together, How did the same thing with your lining fabric, your fleece or your cashmere sweater or the thinner piece of fabric? Cut all your pieces out and make sure you have a right on the left side by applying your safety pins and you're ready to so. 5. Sewing: they're just a few things to go over with the sewing machine. Before we get started, I just use a neutral color thread. Set your machine for a straight stitch and set the lanes somewhere between two and three. The seam allowance will be just to the edge of your presser foot. Bobbin thread will be just the same as your top thread. Go ahead and grab your pieces two and three and you've marked the the right sides. Place the right sides together. The thumb pieces right sides together and pin in place. Match up the notches on the side of the thumb piece, and that is where you'll be sewing, too. So what's so around it? Hm? Just in this section, back stiff to the first of your scene and take your time to sew around the film. Peace. Keeping the edge of the present along the edge of the fabric. So until place that you've marked with a pin, don't go past that and back stitch. Trim your threads and trim the seam allowance just to take some of the bulk off, making sure not to cut through the same. Just cut and trim to the edge of breeze or just where you stopped selling. Take those pieces, you've sold both of them and open the top piece of the mitten. Open place right sides together to the top piece, matching the notch by the thumb and pin in place on the other side at the scene. And then they take the center top and notice how the top of the bottom piece is a little bit bigger. And that's how it's supposed to be to make a nice contour fit. It's designed that way, and we'll just ease in the excess line up your notches, pin in place, and then we'll be sewing all the way around, leaving the bottom portion open again. It's okay that that bottom piece is bigger, so just match up the top center and pin in place. We'll take it to the machine and so around. Once again, back stitch. Fold the thumb piece down towards the towards the other side, so flip it down so that you can so over that scene. So it's out of the way to take your time to so around the corner, matching up the edges and easing in that bottom piece. If you need to depends as yourself continue to so lining up the edges and back stitch at the end. Clip your strip clip here threads, and once you've done that, both of you had to go ahead and trim the edges again. The bulk making sure not to cut through the scene. We'll do the same thing with the lining pieces, but with the lining you're going to make the same allows just a little bit bigger. So leaving just a lit like 1/4 inch more on the seam allowance. Trim your scenes and now place the thumb piece on top of the palm pieces. Right sites together. It's like we did before. Now we're going to turn mitt the outer mitten inside out, poking out the thumb on top. Stick your fingers, stick your hand in there and poke out the this the seems with your fingers. Remove the pins from the lining, but do not turn it inside out. Keep the wrong side out. Place your hand inside the lining with the wrong with the scenes showing and stick it inside the outer mitten. Poke out the scenes now you're ready 6. Sewing On the Cuff: to sell the cuffed to the mitten. You can either use an existing cough that you cut off the sleeve of a sweater, or you can make your own by using that agent. Strip that we cut off the bottom part of the sweater. Fold the cuff in half right sides together and mark with it in pin it and we'll take it to the sewing machine. So down the side, back stitching at the beginning at the end of the same and clip your threads. Turn the cuff inside out so the right side is facing out and fold in half and marked that halfway point from the same with a pin with the right side facing out of the cuff and the raw edges of the top stick the cuff. Inside the Menton with the seam of the cuff facing the thumb, seem off the mitten line up. All three seems from all three layers and pan in place. Now go to the other half way point, where we marked with a pin online that up with the other seem of the mitten again, lineup all three layers and pan in place so the cup is going. You'll have a lot more excess of fabric from the cuff, and that's OK. We'll just sees that and stretch that. We so it go ahead and bring it to the sewing machine and using the edge of your sewing the presser foot as your seem gauge. Go ahead and so back sitting of the beginning, taking your time to ease and stretch as you so and tow. Line up the layers of the fabric so all edges or even and stretching and easing as you stitch. Take your time. Pull out your pins as you so and back stitch of the end. Go ahead and clipped that seam allowance. And this is the fun part. You're gonna flip that over now, depending on whether you want a sleeve to come up higher on the arm or lower. So if you want it lower down, pull the cuff down, lower or bring it up. I like it a little bit up on my arm and to hide that seem, and there you have a cozy, warm pair of mittens. You could embellish your mittens by and bordering a design or flour or a button on the outside of your mitten that will help stabilize the cuff from moving around. Or you can just leave them plain. Thanks for enrolling in my class. I look forward to seeing the pictures that you post of your creative and fun and cozy mittens that you make happened sewing.