48) Mitten Sweater

November is the kind of month where I never know how to dress my kids. Often too warm for a coat but too cool for just a sweater, I find that I spend most of the month with a bag full of sweaters, coats, hats and mittens just in case. So when I saw this idea for a Warm Hands Sweater  on the blog Elsie Marley who saw it on the site Oeuf  (I always want to give full credit to my inspirations) I thought it was the perfect answer to my November clothing dilemma. Not to mention so cute! I found this striped cardigan at a thrift store, then used some scraps of felted sweaters I had left over from our Felted Sweater Mittens, for the pockets. I started by tracing our mitten templates onto a one of the felted sweater scraps and cutting them out. If you don't have mitten templates check our post on Felted Sweater Mittens to see how to make them. I then placed the mitten cutouts onto the sweater to get the right placement. Next I used a felting needle to tack them down in place. If I had been using a wool or even partially wool sweater I could have just needle felted the mittens onto the sweater and been done with it. However the striped cardigan I selected was 100% cotton so the needle felting just tacked them in place, you could also just pin or glue them into place. Once they were tacked down, I quickly stitched them on, using a back stitch all around the border. The Bee has already worn this sweater, frequently sticking her hands in the mitten pockets, to keep them warm while looking cool!

layout mittens on sweater

  

Trace mitten pattern onto felted sweater

Tack down with felting needle

Put hands in mitten pockets to keep cozy warm