I love fuzzy warm mittens in the winter far better than gloves. I know it look s a little funky for an adult to wear mittens in such a hip-suburban setting, and, that having no fingers and only one opposable thumb hinders my ability to deal with toddler-issues, but I still love mittens.

I honestly don’t remember where I found this idea…perhaps Martha Stewart, but I made these tiny beauties for my daughter…who hates them. (She likes to suck on her fingers and she can’t do that wearing mittens.) The fuzzy mitten is cut from a recycled felted sweater and the snowflake is my own design needle-felted on the back of the hand. Here is how to make these cuties and my original pattern.

Need:

• felted fuzzy Snowflake Mitten Pattern
• 1 felted wool or cashmere sweater, preferably size M or larger (for a tutorial on how to felt your own sweater, click here.)
• fabric scissors
• sewing machine (or you can stitch this by hand with a needle and thread)
• matching thread
• straight pins
• wool roving (I used merino wool roving in “ice” color from The Yarn Tree)
• felting needle (I used a 38 gauge)
• needle felting pad (you can use the smaller version)
• tracing wheel and tracing paper for marking fabric with chosen snowflake pattern (or you can eye-ball your own original design)

How to:

1. Print out pattern and cut out the mitten size you want (it is already at 100% size.) (Or loosely trace your child’s hand, add 1/2″ around the edge, and cut out your custom pattern. Fan out the child’s fingers a slight bit for a roomier fit.)

 2. Cut: lay pattern over the sweater ribbing (either at the waist, or the cuff of a sleeve) and align with the grain of the fabric vertically and where the ribbing meets the body of the sweater horizontally (align the horizontal markings on the pattern with the ribbing). Pin the pattern in place, and cut fabric. Cut (4) pieces:

• A – (1) pattern-side up placed on fabric, right-side up
• B - (1) pattern-side down place on fabric right-side up
• C - (1) pattern-side up place on fabric wrong-side up
• D – (1) pattern-side down place on fabric wrong-side up

Piece A and C make up the left hand mitten, and piece B and D make the right hand mitten.

3. Transfer the snowflake pattern of your liking to the fabric right-side of piece A and piece C, taking care to leave at least 3/8″ allowance around the edges.

4. Use wool roving, felting needle, and felting pad to needle felt the snowflake pattern to the right-side of the left-hand and right-hand mitten.  (The snowflakes will show on the back of the hand.)

To needle felt,put mitten on top of your felting pad. Pull a small piece of wool roving and place it on your marked line. With a 38-gauge felting needle poke the roving to push the fibers through the felted wool fabric and locking them in place. Use the needle to “shape” the wool roving in to your design, and poke the fibers until you achieve your desired look.

5. Pin piece A and piece B, right-sides together and sew with a 3/8″ seam allowance, starting after the ribbing, and stopping before the ribbing at the wrist (i.e. don’t sew the ribbing.) back stitching at the beginning and end. Repeat with piece C and piece D. (Take it slow around the tight curves. Reduce your stitch length if you need to, or leaving machine needle in the down position, lift the presser foot to pivot the fabric. It is okay if the fabric stretches or slips a little, the piece is forgiving. At times, I don’t catch both layers in the seam, and it is okay to simply go back and “re-do” the seam to catch both layers.)

6. Turn mitten right-side out (poke out the thumb with a pencil eraser or a chopstick) and sew each ribbing edge, back-stitching at the beginning and end.

7. Turn up the ribbed fabric to form a cuff, and hand tack in place at each seam-line.

8. Try to capture your little one and get them to try on your proud, beautiful, warm and fuzzy creation!

I hope this pattern will inspire you to add embelishments of your own, felted flowers, sewn rosetts, other needle felted patterns, ribbons around the wrist, or two button eyes, and a red felted snake tounge sticking out the seam at the top! Have fun with this and I’d love to see your creative creations! Looks like I am going to have to go back to the felting needle myself…my son just lost one of his mittens.