Scratch Mitt Tutorial

Have you ever not been in the mood to do the laundry or run to Walmart? Me, too! Baby M is constantly scratching his face and his mom if I don't have mitts on him,and needless to say, they get dirty fast with a wanna-be thumb sucker wearing them.

Now any normal mom would know that the five minute trip to Walmart would have been a heck of a lot faster than sewing scratch mitts, but being off on maternity leave has left me with some bad habits; not getting up and showering right away is probably the worst one, so Walmart was out of the question. I certainly would not want to end up on the People of Walmart website! 

I don't have a serger, which would be wonderful for this little project I can only imagine, so if you do have one you probably wouldn't follow all of my tedious steps. Lucky you!

I thought, how hard can this little project really be. Technically I wouldn't even have to hem the top (wish I had a serger!) because knits don't fray. I had great intentions of simply using elastic thread and some knit fabric and it would be o' so easy, right? Not so fast...my new machine refused my elastic thread no matter what I did. Any tips are welcome! My old machine, which I gave to my Grandma was super with elastic thread. I miss my old guy.

Oh well, enough chit chat, let's sew scratch mitts!

Here are some things that you will need:

~knit fabric cut into 4"x4.5" rectangles- I used an old T-shirt

~ballpoint needle

~rotary cutter and ruler or scissors to cut your rectangles

~apprx. 2- 5" pieces of 1/2 inch elastic

~matching thread

~fabric marking pen, although any pen will do

~sewing machine (duh!) a serger would be even better!

First, cut out your rectangles.

Sandwhich two rectangles together.  You will now have two rectangle sandwhiches. Find a green Gerber bowl or jar or anything round and trace curved lines on the bottom of both stacks.

 Cut off the corners so that you now have a rounded bottom (hehe).

 Pin and sew the sides and bottom using your ball point needle.  Do not sew the top shut!  Use a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

 Trim the seam allowance to 1/4 inch.

 With right sides still together fold down the top of each mitt 1 inch.  You may want to pin this, however I did not.  I found that it stayed in place well and I didn't perforate my hand while sewing.

Sew around the bottom to create a casing.  I used a 1/4 inch seam.  Be sure to LEAVE AN OPENING to insert the elastic.

As with anything small, do not do this:

Be sure that the other side is not under the side that you are sewing.

Place a safety pin in one end of your elastic.

 

Thread the elastic through the casing.  Remove the safety pin.

Sew the ends of your elastic together.  You may choose to overlap the ends to make a more flat seam, but I found that the way I show you in the picture worked just great for this small project. 

Finish by sewing the gap in the casing closed.

 Voila!  There you have it!  Scratches no more!

Just look at what babies are saying about these great scratch mitts!

"Thanks Mommy!  These are the bomb!"

Teacher Appreciation Idea for small hands and brave mommies!

Okay, so teacher appreciation day is just around the corner and what better way to thank your child's teacher than a handmade gift from your child.

J and I made up this quick and easy tutorial for a machine embroidered framed sampler.

What you will need:

*2 pieces of plain medium weight fabric- we used weaver's cloth

*various colors of thread

* 5x7 inch picture frame

*perhaps some heat n' bond

We used a beige colored fabric, but for our next one we may try using black fabric with metallic threads and a gold frame.  Denim would also be very cool!

First cut your fabric to the desired size- we chose a 5x7 frame.  You can see in the picture that the fabric was longer than 7 inches, but it should be fine to cut it exactly 5 x 7.  Then you don't have to worry about trimming it later.

Next you will need to make sure your fabric is well pressed.  We used two pieces of fabric to provided a bit of stability.  Otherwise the stitches will pucker.  I think that next time we will try ironing some heat n' bond between the layers so it is a bit sturdier.  It will also keep the layers from moving.  

(I'm kind of new to this sewing thing, so it's kind of trial and error.  If you have suggestions, feel free to offer them!)

Now you are ready to personalize the project with your child's teacher's name.  If you are brave enough to let your child use your machine this will be lots of fun for him or her.  J loved doing this!  If you don't have a machine that embroiders, this would also be a fun hand project.

After we put her name on the project I let J pick each of the stitches he wanted to showcase and he put them on the way he wanted them around his teacher's name.  We changed the thread color for each of the different stitches.  By the time we were finished, he was a pro at threading the machine!

This is how it looked when he was all done sewing.

And here is the final, 1st grader, framed project!  Perfect for any teacher's desk!

(Sorry about the poor lighting in this picture!)