Decorative Felt Mittens - Free Tutorial and Patterns

Felt Mittens - Easy Tutorial 

I found these cute Felt ideas at Pinterest. I have a lot of Pins there for Holiday Decorations and Crafts.
Go to https://www.pinterest.com/laceroseayla/
to see all my Boards and Pins for great ideas!

          Two of the dozen Red Mittens I made

I made four of these white mittens with red embroidered snowflakes and red beads

From Pinterest the idea behind the red mittens I made

The red embroidered snowflake pattern with red beads I used for my white mittens. This was also found at Pinterest

Supplies to make Mittens

To make these Mittens you will need felt that comes by the yard because it is thicker than the  squares of felt that you get in the multi colored felt packs.  You can use those squares if you wish.  I prefer the thicker felt that you can get from Hobby Lobby and Craft type stores like Michaels and Joann.

You will need embroidery floss and thread for the beads. Small beads, pins, ruler, the patterns and embroidery large eye needle and a thin needle that has a large enough eye for the thread as well as thin enough for the beads. 

I have been doing crafting for 40 years and usually buy things in large lots.  I also go to the 2nd hand store to get a lot of my supplies.  If I am doing something specifically for a child under the age of three, I will then use all new materials for health safety.   I usually wash all the materials if they come from the 2nd hand store. I always buy my felt by the yard and that is new material. No need to wash new felt. 

I had bought a pattern from online for another Mitten kit and this was the mitten pattern I used for all the Mittens

The Mitten cuff on the top left is what came with the Kit.  I made the Triangle out of cardboard. Lower is the Mitten cuff I cut out of cardboard that has the scalloped edging. 

These two photos can be printed and used for your pattern. You can crop out the ruler and then just print with black ink. Use your ruler to gauge the size of mitten you want. 

By the way the kit I bought was this one below:

I got it from this place - she has several to choose from: Ericas Wool Felt Kits

 White felt with the paper Mitten patterns ready to cut out. 

I layered my felt by the yard from Hobby Lobby with two layers.  Then pinned the paper patterns on the felt.  I cut the rough squares with my large scissors. Then I used my smaller sharp scissors to cut the curves more accurately.  It really helps to have good sharp scissors to cut material. 

I used red, white and green embroidery floss for these Mittens.

Red Mitten

After you cut out your mittens and your triangle, attach the green triangle on the one top side of the mitten piece.  I used running stitches to attach the triangle as well as attaching the two mitten pieces together. Lastly attach the cuff with a running stitch as well. You can add a button to the top of the cuff if you wish it to look like the one on Pinterest.  If you want to add beads to the triangle, add those before you attach the triangle to the mitten. 

Running stitch to attach the triangle on the Mitten front.

Snowflake Mitten

The snowflake pattern was a very simple one length stitch from the outer edge to the center for each 8 legs of the spoke. The same one length stitch for the ends of the snowflake. 

I used a ruler to measure the center of the area where I wanted the snowflake. I drew on the snowflake using the ruler and a red felt tip pen. The felt tip pen markings will be covered by the floss so it is not visible.  I only drew the four main lines. My vision is very limited so my embroidery is not professional at all.  These are very simple stitches that a young child can do.  Lastly I added the beads with some Ecru colored Pearle cotton.  It is not as thick as a six strand floss. See this chart it is B on the chart.  Regular Embroidery floss is E on the chart. Chart explanation from Cotton threads

Sizes of Pearl Cotton and Embroidery floss

Pearle Ecru cotton thread, thin needle and beads

Make sure your bead will fit on the needle. Thread your needle with the desired thread. Add bead by starting from the underside of your Mitten and add your bead where desired. 

After you embroider your snowflake and attach your beads you can then use the running stitch to join the two mitten pieces together. Lastly add your cuff piece with the running stitch. 

Other Mitten Ideas

I found these other ideas at Pinterest.

I hope to find these cute Heart shaped buttons! 

I have some large red and green buttons that will be perfect for this project! 

I really like this tree and I may do a shortened version on a white Mitten.

I have a lot of white buttons - perfect for this tree shape

These three snowmen are so cute!!!

The Blanket stitch takes more embroidery floss than the running stitch, however, it looks so cute!

Close up of this project. Looks like material attached with a star made from embroidery floss

So many cute ideas!!! Most of these Pins at Pinterest do not have patterns - so you will have to make your own.

I like the Snowmen and I will probably do those next! So stay tuned for the next tutorial on the Snowmen!!!

FREE Halloween Plastic Canvas Tutorial

Halloween Plastic Canvas Decoration

I have been making Plastic Canvas items since 2009 when a friend had a class for our Singles group.

I found that I really loved this craft.  It was something that I could do with my limited vision.

I use the size 7 plastic Canvas. Which is 7 squares per inch.  

I had made these Ghost Baskets in 2010 and I loved the Ghost.

The pattern is from this Leaflet.

I love the Ghost - however the basket is really small. So this year I decided I wanted to make a large container decorated with the Ghosts and pumpkins.

After I made the container my daughter said I should add a Tombstone!

So I found a pattern that said Trick or Treat and added that to the Tombstone.  I had an extra Ghost and added that to the Tombstone. 

I had made this tiny Black cat in 2012 and so I added her to the top of the Tombstone. 

  Ha Ha - My owl is grabbing the Cat! 

Finished product and below is instructions and patterns.

You will need two or three sheets of Plastic Canvas, the yarn colors of your choice, a Needle point blunt end needle that has a large eye, "Googly - eyes", a glue gun and glue. 

I glued the googly eyes on the ghosts with the glue in the glue gun. 

The photos here should print nicely to 8 1/2 by 11 paper.   You could probably print in black ink and save the photos for referral. 

First I made 5 Ghosts as per this pattern.

Then I made 9 of the Pumpkins and I made them a bit larger.

Next I cut out the plastic canvas as a pattern for a cube Tissue Box container.  That is 35 holes long or tall by 31 holes width.

It can be slightly bigger as the one pattern I have suggests making the container 30 holes wide by 36 holes long or tall. So you are cutting 4 sides and one bottom. The bottom is made with the same width, in my case - 31 holes by 31 holes square.

There is no top because the container is open to fill with Halloween candy and the Tombstone!

Smaller Squares              Larger Squares

The two sides have smaller squares and the other two sides.

 have larger squares.

Pattern of the stitching for the larger squares.  As you can see diagonally it is 11 stitches for a square and takes up 6 holes on each side of the square.  Reverse the alternate color so it is the opposite pattern the way the yarn is stitched. 

Pattern for the smaller squares.  As you can see diagonally it is 7 stitches for a square and takes up 4 holes on each side of the square.  

First I did all the squares in Purple first. Working diagonally down the plastic canvas. Then I saw I had an uneven amount of squares at the end to make a complete square. I filled in as you can see at the bottom of each of the squares.

After  I did all the Purple, I added in the black yarn.  When you complete the 4 sides you can add the Ghosts and Pumpkins.  Then stitch together the 4 sides.  Lastly add the unworked bottom.

I made this container two different sizes of Checkerboard pattern to reflect the craziness of Halloween.  I love the Checkerboard pattern!

The Tombstone

I did the same large square pattern for the Tombstone.  In this photo you can see how the 4 squares make a lovely pattern when you reverse the stitching. 

Of course I did the bottom part first then I had to piece in the top with the rounded edges.  

When I worked the gray after I did the words Trick or Treat, it was difficult to fill in the squares exactly correctly.  

Some people do the words after they make their background pattern. 

After I had made the square tombstone my daughter said it would look better if it had a "rounded" top to it.  

So I added a piece that was more rounded looking at the top. Of course you will cut your piece so that it is the way you want it.

Also I cut two pieces of plastic canvas for the tombstone so it would stand up. The thinner plastic canvas will not stand up straight unless you use two pieces back to back.  

It is not hard to work the yarn through the two pieces. 

I used this pattern as a guideline for the words Trick or Treat.

I have quite an extensive collection of Plastic Canvas Patterns at Pinterest.  You can find them all at :

https://www.pinterest.com/laceroseayla/

I have five dedicated boards for Plastic Canvas separated by Hollidays. 

For the cat - I could not find the original pattern so I made one to approximate what I did make back years ago. 

The mini cat is cut on the diagonal of the Plastic canvas.   The cat is 17 holes tall and 21 holes wide. It was very hard to work with because it is so small. The tail was particularly hard to do.  Once you do the edges it makes them more rounded and not so angular.  

She is softer once the edging is done. I recommend doing the edging first! Then fill in the stitches. 

When you add the Ghosts, Pumpkins and Cat, use that same color yarn to attach the item to the container and the Tombstone. 

If you need any further help or questions, leave a comment here and I will answer your query. 

              Happy Halloween!!!!