The Mitten Factory!

  The SPD Mitten Factory is gearing up for a very cold New England Winter! Joanne, who works with me part time as a sample maker and pattern editor, brought in a bunch of mittens that she made from the Madawaska Mitten Pattern by Sherri Noel.  Joanne and I have been saving wool sweaters to make into mittens for some time now.  We decided to work together to mass produce all the mittens we are giving as gifts this year!  Joanne had a head start and you will see her mittens in the photo above.  So I thought I would tap into Joanne’s  expertise and learn how to sew up my own gifts!  Joanne stayed after work yesterday so we could get the Mitten Factory in full swing.  

When my Mom moved to Texas, she gave me one of the wool sweaters that she knit before I was born.  She won’t be needing it in warm, sunny Texas, so she wanted me to make mittens out of it!  Here is the sweater, once I took it apart at the seams. 

The mittens are made in four pieces that you can cut from one sweater, or you can mix and match colors and patterns.  You can see that I cut off the bottom waistband to use as cuffs for the mittens. I then cut the front of the mitten from the yoke of the sweater and the two back pieces from the dotted section. This is just one of the dozen or so sweaters that we cut up last night!  

Tonight I will be cutting the fleece lining, but it will be so much easier!  My new shipment of templates and patterns just arrived.  Now I have a great set of Rotary Cutting Templates for the Mittens to make the job so much faster and easier!  If you would like your own pattern or a set of rotary cutting templates to start your own Mitten Project, go ahead and click on the link above to get them from my website.  You may remember Sherri from the Text-It blog hop that I participated in last summer. 

Sherri’s book “Text-It” and “Dear Daughter” a fabulous text filled block of the month pattern are still available in my shop.  

I’ll send you some photos once I get all these warm, cozy beauties sewn!  I’m thinking I can probably get enough mitten parts out my Mom’s hand knit sweater to make a very heart-felt gift for my two sisters and one for myself.  

I hope your holiday projects are just as special, whether it is finishing up a quilt that will be gifted to a loved one or baking cookies from an old family recipe.  What I love about a home-made Christmas is making wonderful memories with my family, building bonds and sharing traditions with the next generation.