Wool "Sweater" Mittens

Last Christmas (2009), my sister, brother's girlfriend, and I made "sweater" mittens.  We spent an evening cutting and sewing Goodwill sweaters into the cutest mittens.  Well, this year, Kaitlyn and I spent most of Thanksgiving vacation whipping up sweater mittens for Christmas gifts.  We had both collected quite a few sweaters from our respective Goodwill stores, which made some pretty sweet mittens!  

Personally, my favorite pair would have to be the Mickey mittens!  When I saw this sweater I immediately thought of my mom's best friend.  She has a huge Mickey collection...so they were perfect for her!  Isn't the sweater a hoot? 

Wool Sweater Mitten Tips:  
MATERIAL: To make these beauties you need to have a couple of coordinating WOOL sweaters.  I try to get 100% wool, but will occasionally get a really cute one that is only 70 or 80% wool.  You have to wash the sweaters in hot water and then dry them on high heat to shrink them.  I believe this is sort of like felting wool.  I know that it helps make the mitten warmer, but I really don't know much beyond that.  A year ago I did a lot of "research" to figure out how to make our very own sweater mittens...so I know what works, but don't actually remember all of the reasoning behind it! Anyway, since I intentionally try to shrink the sweater I like to get big sweaters so there will be more fabric to work with after it's shrunk...makes sense, right?  Plus, the sweaters are the same price regardless of size, so why not get one that will make a few more mittens?

PATTERN: We found our mitten pattern at Field's Fabric and then traced it out on wax paper so that we could cut out all different sizes and then replace them once they've been used a few times.  One thing to be careful about when cutting out the mitten is to make sure you have lined up patterns correctly.  You also want to make sure that you flip over the pattern on the thumb sides so that you don't end up with two left gloves...this may have happened once...or twice.  

CUFF: We used the cuffs and bottom "hem" of the sweaters as the cuff of the mitten.  We also picked up a thin polar fleece to line the inside of the mittens, which makes them really warm.  It's a good idea to tack the cuff down so it doesn't unroll every time you take your mittens off.  One cute way to do this would be to sew buttons onto the top.