Make mittens for winter

The cold weather has well and truly arrived in Montreal! We're mentally preparing to weather the next three months. Your little sewing hands are important to us, so today we're sharing a lovely tutorial and a mitten pattern with you.

This is also our way of thanking you, dear students, for a wonderful year spent in your company :)

You will need:

This project is a great opportunity to upcycle your cutting scraps and old sweaters.
A scrap of leather or faux leather
30cm of stretchy knit (fleece, ponte de roma, old wool sweater) for the outside of your mitten
30cm of cotton jersey for the lining of your mitten
20cm of 6mm wide elastic.
Print the mitten pattern in actual size by clicking HERE (seam allowances included)

The first step is to assemble the faux leather reinforcement with the upper part representing the palm of the mitten. This involves placing the leather piece on the right side of the fabric and topstitching the piece at a distance of 3mm from the bottom of the leather piece. We suggest you do some tests before sewing on your project. You will probably need a Teflon foot and set your stitch length to 3.5 to avoid damaging your leather or polyurethane.

Focus on the leather reinforcement of the mittens Leather reinforcement stitching on the mitten
Now you'll need to place the elastic at the wrist. To do this, cut an elastic band 90% of the width of your mitten and secure it in place with a zigzag stitch.

Cutting the elastic Stitching the elastic on the sides of the mitten Creating gathers with zigzag stitching
Now we will start assembling the palm pieces of the mitten together. First, we will need to sew the top piece of the mitten palm to the bottom one. This involves placing the two pieces right sides together, left hand with left hand :), and assembling the pieces while respecting a distance of 6mm. Don't forget to stop your sewing at the place indicated on the pattern at the bottom of the thumb :)

Assembling the top of the mitten
Notch the rounded part at the base of the thumb and press the seam allowance located at the level of the open palm of the hand with the iron.

Notch the curves
Place the top of the mitten against the palm of the mitten and pin everything together, taking care not to make large perforations in your piece of leather.

Assembling the two parts of the mittens Remember to pin the outline well
Place the thumb piece toward the top of the mitten. First, sew the inner part of the mitten from the wrist to the base of the thumb, taking care to stop your sewing exactly at the base of the thumb and make a backstitch. Tilt the thumb toward the wrist of the mitten, insert the needle exactly at the base of the thumb and sew the top and outer part of the mitten together.

Sew 1cm from the edge
Your mitten is now assembled! You will need to perform the same steps for the other hand :)

The mitten once assembled The pair of mittens once turned inside out
Repeat the same steps for the lining pieces. However, it is not necessary to add elastic to the cuff, and the seam allowance should be 1 cm. Once the lining pieces are assembled, you can reduce the seam allowances by half to avoid creating bulk.

Reduce the lining seam allowances
You now have your 2 lining pieces and mittens assembled. You will then need to insert the lining piece inside the mitten, wrong sides together and assemble the bottom of the mitten by folding the seam allowance at the wrist to 1cm and topstitching the lining and fabric pieces together at a distance of 3mm.

The main parts and their linings Insert the liner into the mitten
If you are used to working with linings, you can alternatively leave an opening in the lining under the thumb, assemble the lining piece to the mitten right sides together and turn the mitten on itself through this hole. All that will be left is to close the closure with a nice hand stitch or a topstitch using the machine :)