Thrifty Thursday

Christmas is a week away!!!! But, there's still time to make up some very simple but lovely gifts, like mittens!
I found this free mitten pattern at www.fleecefun.com

There motto is rather cute, "Velvet is Pretentious, Fleece is Fun!" All of their patterns are free, and easy I might add, so be sure and take a look. You can find the mitten pattern HERE.
Here's the pair that I made. I used a lovely piece of wool fleece.

The pattern is VERY easy to download and there's even an instructional video on the website. So this would be great for anyone who is learning to sew. The pattern comes in a wide range of sizes from Child Small to Man Large, so you can cover everyone on your list. You will have 3 pattern pieces once you've downloaded the pattern. I used the Adult Woman pattern and I did have to tape a small portion on the mitten top pattern piece, but that was all the taping that was required.

I was able to achieve a very nice fit, but remember, my hands are very narrow and my wrists are quite small,

so I did need to do a little customizing to the pattern. But as you can see, it was quite easy to do. I just slipped the mitten on my hand and then pinned it in.

I did line mine with fleece, but a thinner piece of fleece. Worked out really well. When I walked the dogs last night, I decided to wear the mittens and give them a test run for warmth. Now keep in mind that I am always cold, so I am the perfect person to try things out for warmth. If I'm warm, everyone will be warm. The mittens passed the test!!!!

I plan to wear the mittens with one of my favorite coats. This is an old Claude Montana pattern. A friend gave the the lovely scarf, so I am all set!

One note about the mittens, they will not be good for driving as the fleece is quite slippery. But here's an idea. Notice that the palm of the pattern is in 2 pieces. You could do the top of the palm in a faux suede rather than the fleece and then you could actually use them as driving mitts.
As you can see, my Christmas sewing is not going so well, so far everything I've made I've kept for myself!!!! Oh well, Merry Christmas to me!!!!
Hope you can do a little Christmas sewing for yourself too :)
Rhonda

Mitten, Mitten, Whose Got the Mitten!

Oh my, do I ever have something great to share with you today. My little friend, Miss Mari of http://disparatedisciplines.com/ recently told me that she had a new pattern for me to test, a mitten pattern. My first thought was, "Really?, mittens?" Then she told me what made them special, you can use your phone in cold weather and not take off your gloves!!! She researched conductive fabric and found some that works beautifully. Now, I am a bit of a stone age left over when it comes to anything on the computer, so I had no idea that there was such a thing as conductive fabric. When she brought it over to show me, oh my, I was like a kid in a toy shop, what fun!!! I also had the opportunity to see just how cute the mittens are.

The shape of the mittens is just wonderful and they look so nice on your hand. Notice the back side. Mari had said that she really didn't like the seams going down the sides, so she decided to bring the seams around to the back and make one long seam down the center. I love this detail. You can see that it allows for designs possibilities. In the picture below you can see the conductive fabric on the tips of the fingers and the thumb. She has the fabric in black, I chose to use the gray so it would stand out a little more. One note about the conductive fabric, it is a bit thin. I did a little test and folded it into 4 layers to see if it would still work and it does. For my mittens, I just used a double layer of the fabric. The fabric I used is a double faced stretch wool. So I used one side for the body of the mittens and the back side for the palm.

No picture of me this morning. First of all, the wind chill is -18 degrees, so it is super cold out. I also have another procedure to deal with today, so I am trying to take it easy before I go and not rush around too much. Evidently I won't be able to eat for a while, so my husband took me out for a great breakfast!  

The mittens come in various lengths.  Since I'm almost always cold, I decided to make the opera length. Besides, they look more dramatic!!!
I just can't tell you how much I love the feature of the conductive fabric. It really works. The mittens would be a great present for anyone who uses their phone in cold weather. You might notice that I have on Mari's Yellow Tail Camisole. I wear this top ALL THE TIME!!! It makes the perfect undershirt.

Mari gives a very detailed explanation on finding the correct size mitten. I used the extra small...me and my bird leg arms, maybe I should pick up a weight every once in a while ;). I do have very thin wrists and I usually have a problem with things being too big, the mittens fit perfectly. I did not make one change to the pattern. I love it, sew and go!!!

The mittens will make lovely gifts for everyone on your holiday gift list. The pattern includes sizes from xs to 3xl. The pattern is also instantly downloadable, so no waiting for it to come in the mail. My mittens took me no longer than an hour from cut to finish, so once again, great for last minute gifts, socking stuffers, you name it. You can find the pattern here, http://disparatedisciplines.com/product/honeycrisp-mittens-9702/

The price is great too, only $10.00. Not a bad investment :) If you look closely at the above picture, you can see the black conductive fabric on the thumbs of the blue mittens. 

When the weather warms up a bit, I'll take some pictures of me wearing my mittens. 

A little side note;

I test a LOT of patterns and I'm sure that from a reader's point of view it comes across that I like everything I test. This is not the case at all. I am of the mind that if I can't say something nice, I'll say nothing at all. More times than not, when I come across something that I don't like, I can find a way to fix it. But sometimes I can't and that is when I just say nothing publicly. So with that said, if you see a pattern on my blog that I have tested, you can rest assured that it is something I really do like.