Santa Mittens Pattern

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

If you're not sure what that means, the Open Source Sewing index has more details.

The Pattern

Although the sample mittens are made from fleece (Polarfleece, etc.), you could make them from anything that doesn't fray and is (ideally) washable - fulled wool sweaters, thick felt, etc.

There's a "secret" pocket behind Santa's face for tissues or other little items.

The grid is 1" for a small child's mitten - print at 75 dpi for this, or at a lower DPI for a larger mitten.

Make sure you cut this with the primary stretch (across the width of fleece) going horizontally. If your fleece doesn't have an obvious right side, stretch it - horizontally, the fleece will curl toward the wrong side.

Applique the face to the beard, using a fairly short zigzag stitch (not quite a buttonhole stitch, or you'll ruffle the edges). Then applique the moustache to the face, and stitch buttons on for eyes and nose.

Fold the edge of the long white rectangle up into a hem and topstich in place. If your edge ruffles, you're using too short of a stitch, or stretching as you sew.

Applique the face to the mitten back. Don't sew across the top if you want to make the pocket.

Position the long white rectangle so it overlaps the face slightly. Applique it to the mitten back, only along the top.

Tack a piece of 1/4" elastic down to the WRONG side of the mitten back, matching its edge to the edge of the mitten back. Stretching the elastic as you go, sew it down with a stretch stitch. Do the same to the mitten front.

Match the two mitten front pieces, RST, and sew across the palm and around the thumb. Double-stitch over the seam at the point inside the thumb, and clip the seam allowance.

If using fleece, clip the small square into 3/8" fringe, making sure you cut in the direction of maximum stretch. After clipping, gently pull the fringe tabs. The fleece should "ravel" into curly, yarnlike strands. If it doesn't, you probably cut in the wrong direction, or you might try cutting narrower fringe. Roll up the base (the uncut edge) to make a pompon.

Match the mitten front and back, RST, putting the bottom of the pompon in the seam allowance, and making sure the fringe ends aren't caught anywhere. Cut a notch in the seam allowance so that the thumb can be pulled out of the way.

Turn up a small hem and topstitch.

Turn rightside out and admire.