Open-fingered Sweater Mittens

I've been walking the dog without mittens and the chilly morning air is getting to be a bit much. So, I've finally tried The Gunny Sack's Fingerless Gloves tutorial so I'm ready for the walk tomorrow morning.

My sweater gloves are rough, but they will work. I followed the Gunny Sack's directions, and it was a quick and painless project.

To start, I just cut off the sleeves of an old sweater. This one wasn't 100% wool, or else I could have felted it, which is recommended for any resweatering craft. Felting a sweater will shrink the sweater and help the material's threads stay together better.

Just have to try on the sleeves to see where a small cut needs to be made, for the thumb. 

Sew around the thumbs, zig zag (and with color-coordinating thread, not bright white like mine). And then, sew down the sleeve curving in to make the mittens tighter on your arm. Then, sew around the ends to keep the material from unraveling and then you'll have your own sweater mittens!

Snowman Gum

Getting ready for stuffin' stockings and this is a great idea!

Pup Sweater

My pup gets a haircut tomorrow, just as it's starting to get really chilly outside. Yesterday, north of my area, snow was already falling - and Halloween hasn't even arrived! It's probably going to be a cold winter so my short hair dog will need something to keep him warm during our early weekday morning walks. So, the easy dog sweater project is what I completed this morning, along with a few chuckles when I tried it on my dog :)  Check out the link (above) for easy-to-follow directions.

I started by measuring my dog's neck, torso, and torso length , and then divided the neck and torso width measurements by 2 (since there will be a front and a back material). I used newspaper for the pattern. I found the vertical center of the paper, then measured 1/2 of each measurement from that line, connected the neck and torso and had my pattern. I used that pattern to trace onto a sweater (the same pattern can be used for the back piece, just w/out the leg holes). The pattern's bottom needs to meet up with the bottom seam of the sweater (one less edge to sew up).

From the sweater, I cut off the neck and arm cuffs, and put them on the pooch for a trial run.

Then, I just did some sewing to attach the right sides of the front and back material and then the cuffs. Again, check out Resweater's dog sweater tutorial for detailed directions.

 True, the pooch doesn't look too excited, but come tomorrow when he's shaved down, I'm sure he'll appreciate my craftiness....

THANKS to Rhinestone Beagle for featuring my pooch on their link party!