Mittens!

I needed to show off these mittens and headband that I made yesterday. I was in a sewing mood and figured that I didn't have any gloves with me at school, so I created my own! And bedazzled them with buttons just for fun. Good news is, they fit perfectly for my hands that don't normally fit that great in ladies mittens. I want to wear them everywhere :)

I think they are so cute. And with purple thread :)

 

How I made them:

• First, I traced my hand on a piece of paper, and then traced a traditional "mitten" shape around it, leaving some room for my fingers to move! I eyeballed it and made it about 1/4 inches wider for seem allowance (and the width of my hand) It looked huge when it was done!
• I cut out the pattern I created and put it over some fleece I bought at Walmart awhile ago (I'm planning on making homemade can coozies with my scrap fabric and to use the fleece as lining!)
• I cut out four of each mitten shapes and sewed them together
• Turned them inside out, "hemmed" the bottom by tucking the opening under and sewing a nice straight stitch and added buttons! 
• They are only 1 layer thick but a lot warmer than I expected! They definitely block the wind I know if I needed to I could add a lining next time, but my pattern would have to be even bigger!
• For the headband, I cut a strip of fabric out (eyeballed how big, even though I should have used my tape measure!) and held it up to my head to determine the length.
• "Hemmed" the sides by folding it over to make the right width I wanted, and sewed a straight stitch on both sides. (Two on each side for a little more embellishment)
• I held it to my head again, to make sure I had the right fit, and sewed it together and added more buttons!

My trial and errors:

• I started with just one mitten (by cutting out only two pieces, not four) for a trial and it was too small and too short. I needed to add more seem allowance and some legnth to the bottom. Also, it was too small at the wrist and my palms were too wide to get in the mitten easily! 
• It was hard to sew small stitches, so I set my machine to a very long stitch, which helped because the feet of the machine grabbed a lot of material and once and moved it right along.
• It was hard to decide which side of the mitten to start sewing on, I had a pucker near the thumb because I had to take it off and start again due to a really awkward angle! It was easier the second time.

Tips to make your own!

• Make your "pattern" around your own hands much bigger than you think, too big is easy to fix, but too small and you're wasting all of that fabric!
• Sew a trial mitten first, with scraps that you don't want or need. Try to make it fleece so you can get a feel for it. If you don't have extra fleece, just use other fabric so you can see which way is easiest to sew around the thumb of the mitten.
• Sew on any embellishments before you sew your mittens together if you can, it was very hard to reach inside of the mitten to sew the buttons on! However, it let me place them exactly where I planned to on the mitten because I waited.
• Make sure to sew your headbands and mittens inside out or wrong side facing you, so when you turn it around/right side out it doesn't show any of your seems! (Obvious to some, but I've made the mistake before by going too fast!) 

Hope you try to make your own. I wish I had pictures of it in process! Next time.... promise!

Have a great night. A Disney movie is in my near future.