Suede Mittens

Hey all! It's a pretty chilly February day, so I thought I would post about some cute mittens I made this past Christmas! (This purple pair was for my Secret Santa gift!)

They were surprisingly easy to make, but look pretty professional. My one suggestion for anyone who wants to work with leather/suede: invest in the proper needles for your machine.

The pattern is based off of  pair of mittens that I actually own.

First I cut out all the lining pieces in black fleece (this fabric is leftover from my Toothless onesie!). Using those as a template I traced my outer suede pieces to be lightly larger. This is so that the lining fits comfortably inside. Because both fabrics are fairly bulky.

I also cut out the holes for the thumbs and the thumb pieces. You could alternatively just make a 2 piece mitten pattern (with the thumb part of the main piece), but I find these have more articulation.

Keep in mind when cutting out your pieces that you are supposed to be making 2 mirrored mittens and that the fabrics have good and bad sides. Make sure you don't end up with 2 rights or 2 lefts! When you construct the lining make sure the good side of the fabric is going to be on the inside.

I first sewed my linings together, for the main part of the mitten, assembled the thumb pieces and then sewed the thumb into the thumb hole.

Then you repeat the exact same process with the suede, except that the good side should face out and the seams should be on the inside. And also that the stitching will be a lot more challenging. I had some difficulties getting the thumb piece to properly fit in the hole...
Binder clips can be useful to a certain extent, but don't rely on them too much.

When both the inside and outside are assembled, they are slotted inside one another and a trim is sewn along the unfinished cuff to hold both pieces in place. On the purple ones I just used a strip of my purple suede folded over the edge. On the black pair, I ran out of black suede, so I used a contrasting green suede. This black pair with the green trim was made for my older sister! ;D

February Update - 4th Blogiversary

First and foremost, I have finally done a photoshoot of my Forest Guardian costume. As evidenced by my brand new banner! ;D Pretty rad huh? Still tweaking the colour scheme of the blog to match the new banner... toned down the orange a bit...

Special thanks to Mike (EleventhPhotograph) for doing this in subzero temperatures. The pics look fantastic! I can't believe I did this in -15 degrees. Did I mention this costume is made of really breatheable cotton?! I still have all my toes though.

Apparently I missed my own blogiversary this week? I can't believe I have been doing this for 4 years of my life? This year has been quite eventful, lots of costumes started, but not lots of costume finished. Which is a regret of mine. I hope in the coming year that I can focus on completing my started projects (like Toph, Vaporeon, maybe even Presea?), and also maybe actually blog about my completed projects (Sakura-chan? What happened??)...

Another regret of mine is that the blog has fallen into such bad disrepair. I have tons of broken links/photos and the ongoing rotation issues in my old posts... It is going to take some serious work to re-vamp the blog. Which I can't guarantee happening before I finish my degree. I must finish university so I can have some of my sanity back.

The highlights of this year include The Forest Guardian, Steampunk Air Captain, Isabelle, Toothless, and my various versions of CardCaptor Sakura. This year I also added lots of new skills to my arsenal like corsetry, tailoring, embroidery, and special effects makeup! I look forward to exploring those more in future costuming endeavors.

Today my show closed, which marks the last show I will do with Ryerson Theatre School. A bit sad, but I think I am ready to move on. Now for that degree... This is the homestretch people!

I have just submitted some of my designs to Prague Quadrennial, which is an international theatre design exhibition (in Prague), coming up this summer. We'll see if I make it in? My submissions included my Forest Guardian, set design for My Fair Lady and some preliminary designs from my upcoming independent study. Which I should really be working on...

That's all for now folks!