The Upcycled Sweater Series Part 2 - Hat and Mittens Tutorial

It's time for another blog post about up-cycling sweaters! As you may remember, I had several sweaters set aside for up-cycling projects, but there were so many projects, I realized it would be better to split them up into a series. Part One was all about making leg warmers. You can find the first post about how to make leg warmers and boot socks.

This time, I want to show you a couple of accessories that I made.

Here's the sweater before:

It's actually a skirt. I found it when I went thrifting recently. The skirt was adorable, and in such good condition that I had to get it, even though it was too small for me.

This skirt was turned this into a cute hat, and matching mittens. This is how I did it:

First turn the skirt inside out (I used the waistband of the skirt as the brim of the hat so that way I wouldn't have to hem the bottom). Then trace the outline of the hat with a white pencil or chalk.

Pin it, sew it up, and trim off the extra fabric. (I forgot to serge the trimmed edges, but I would recommend it to prevent unraveling in the washing machine...or you could wash it by hand...every single time. But who want to do that???).

Now for the mittens.

I used the bottom part of the skirt (or the opposite end) for the mittens. Place your hand on top of the fabric and trace around your hand, fingers, and thumb to make a mitten shape. Then pin around the mitten shape (unless you have amazing confidence in your sewing skills, which I do not).

Sew that bad boy up, and trim the excess fabric. Repeat that whole process again with the other hand, because you want two mittens, not just one...unless you only have one hand. In that case you do not need to make another one. ;) (Remember, serging all the trimmed edges is a good idea, even though I forgot to do that).

And here are the finished products. My husband told me the mittens resemble saguaro cactus. I think he is right, but that is due to the fact that my sewing skills leave something to be desired. And the fact that I have a hard time following the line I traced when using the sewing machine. Ha ha.

After I finished, my son found the hat, and insisted on wearing it. He calls it the "Star Hat," because he thinks the "X's" on the fabric are stars.

I think I may let him have the hat, since he likes it so much.