Sunday, January 27, 2013

Recycled Wool Sweater Mittens

Day by Day  Crafting!

    
    It's time for mittens!








I love these mittens.  They are so cute, so easy, so warm, and they are made from recycled sweaters and wool.  

To make a pair you will need thrift store wool sweaters, fleece for the lining, and embellishments.

Half of the fun of making these mittens is shopping for the wool.  For about $10 I can find wool suits and beautiful wool sweaters (sometimes the ugly sweaters make the cutest mittens) that will make several pair of mittens.  

Take a few hours and shop the local thrift stores.   You will want to find items that contain as close to 100% wool as possible. Then look for those inexpensive fleece wool blankets.  I have found them for as little as $2.50 each.  They come in so many cute prints and just about every color you can think of.  You can make your lining as cute as your wool exterior.

Once you have your wool, strip any buttons from it and throw the wool in the washer on hot.  You want the wool to shrink and felt together to bind the fibers to make an extremely tight woven fabric that will withstand the cold.  The higher percentage of wool, the tighter the fiber will become.  Dry on hot as well.

Now the fun begins.  Using the patterns that you can download here, cut out a variety of wool for each section.  Sometimes the most unusual combinations make the most adorable mittens. 

I found a great video that is really good at explaining how to sew the mittens and what cautions you need to take in order to avoid two right hands instead of a set pair.  I would step by step it out for you, but this video is so much better than me trying to explain it.  mittens video

If you would like a pre-made pair of mittens, visit my store. http://explorecreatecraft.homestead.com/Store.html



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