Easy Repurposed Sweater Mittens

I am not a seamstress.  I'm  really am not a seamstress.  I am a stay-at-home mom with time on my hands, too much time, I guess.

I made this Repurposed Sweater Pillow last week as a gift for a friend. 

I loved the pink sweater so much that I just couldn't throw away the sleeves.  

Who knows when you'll need 2 beautiful pink sweater sleeves. I kept hearing  "Hoarder, hoarder, hoarder" whispered over and over again.   Luckily, only 4 days later I came up with the perfect use for the sleeves when a friend was in need of mittens and gloves for a move to a cold climate.

I had left the seam on the sleeve when I cut them off the sweater.  Since the sweater was made from wool, I washed them with a load of jeans.  I didn't really want to felt them, but I wanted the knit to tighten up some.  This seemed to work for me.

I made a pattern for the mittens by drawing around my hand.  There's a great quick video tutorial {here}.

I used a thinner fleecy sweater for my first attempt.  I laid the pattern so that the cuff is the bottom hem of the sweater ( = less sewing).  I also laid the pattern so that the non-thumb side of the mitten is the side seam of the sweater ( = even less sewing).  I told you I'm not a seamstress.

Once I cut both mittens out, I laid them on top of each other and trimmed them to the same size.  Even though I used a pattern, the mittens came out slightly different sizes because cutting through two layers of sweater can be tricky around the thumb joint area.  

I sewed them up and was so thrilled with the results that I had to make another pair.  

This time I used the binding of the cardigan (where the buttons and button holes are) to make the cuffs ( = less sewing + cute detail).  I folded the button side of the cardigan in half and cut my pattern out with the non-thumb side on the fold ( = less sewing). I did the same with the button hole side of the cardigan.  I used the extra buttons from the scraps to sew over the button holes so that both mittens match with their button detail.  My 17-year old daughter has already appropriated these.  Best compliment a mom can get.

By now I'd gained enough confidence to tackle the pink sweater, my original inspiration.  I was so excited, I forgot to take pictures.  But I laid the pattern on the sleeve so that the cuff of the sweater would be the cuff of the mitten.  And I continued my lazy ingenious step of laying the non-thumb side of the pattern on the seam of the sleeve (again, = less sewing).

I'm so happy with the way these turned out that I'm not sure I'm going to give them away.   

They're very easy to make and I made all three six of these mittens in less than an hour.  And that was with a  non-seamstress learning curve.  If you're like me, and really don't sew much, the only two things you need to know are:

1.  Use the cuff of the sweater for the cuff of your mitten.

And,

2.  Lay your pattern so the non-thumb side is on a seam or fold.

Have fun.  I'm off to thrift some more sweaters, patterned sweaters this time.  I still need to make another pair for that friend of mine 'cause the pink ones are staying with me.

 

 

Update: 

These pillows started the mitten project.

Sweater Pillows

 

 

And I made these gift bags from the sleeves of the red pillow sweater.

Sweater Sleeve Gift Bags

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