Turn Your Gloves Into Temporary Mittens

I'm riding my bike almost every day, no matter if it's summer or winter time, sunshine, heavy rain or snowing.

In late autumn and early spring when the weather is not to cold I'm just wearing my gloves, either knit one or some old gloves out of soft shell fabric.

But if it starts to be colder, the wind, rain and rainy snow start to make my way outside much more uncomfortable. I also can't use my woolen gloves anymore since the rain will go through immediately. My finger and hand back are starting to hurt and my mother would say "it is time for mittens"…

But I don't like mittens. I never liked them, even as a kid. I hate it if I can't move every finger by its own.

But mittens are very good for keeping the warmth of your fingers together, I agree with that.

But still no possibility to move the fingers separately and I would need another pair of gloves-type lying around and just be used within the two of three month of colder temperatures.

And then I got THE idea. Mitten's caps that I can use for every glove model. Because it will be possible to take them off when I arrive somewhere where I only need gloves. Out of soft shell to keep the wind away and make them water repellent. Perfect.

Sew on and keep your hands warm.

Material:

• Soft shell/ or 2-layer laminat material for the outside
• Fury/woolen fabric for the inside
• Fitting thread

Tools:

• Sewing machine
• Piece of paper for the pattern
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Wonderclip or pins

1. Put on your preferred glove, if you have different pairs, put on the biggest one.
2. Put your hand flat on a piece of paper and trace your fingers and the point where your thumb starts.
3. You will have two patterns pieces (or one with a fold), a shorter one for the inside and a longer one for the outside to cover also the back of your hand.
4. Trace your traced fingers with an distance of 5mm, ignore the fingers to create a mitten shape.
5. Cut the outer line and lay it on your glove to see if it fits.

If you are using fresh fabric just skip this step.

I got some soft shell leftovers from a friend and was always storing them for this one specific moment where "I really need soft shell leftovers now". Which never appeared; until this moment. (Ok, I admit, if I would have had soft shell pieces big enough, I would have probably used them instead. But I didn't.)

1. Cut the pieces of fabric with a rotary cutter to create strait borders.
2. Sew them together using a bigger zig zag stitch and edge to edge. With this technique you won't get it perfectly water proof, but since soft shell isn't usually waterproof, this is also not necessary.
3. Create enough fabric until you can trace two times the outside and the inside of your mitten caps.

In my opinion the fabric looks like it's supposed to look that way. No hint of recycling.

I sewed the black pair two years ago and just made few pictures to send to a fried, so I thought it's time for a second new pair, which I documented in a more precis way. That's why some of the pictures are showing the black mittens and most of them are showing the process of the red ones.

So I sewed the second pair of mitten caps out of a 2-layer laminate, which is wind and water proof. If you are using a fabric without stretch, you will need to add another 10mm around the traced lines. So add 15mm to your pattern while cutting the non stretch fabric.

1. Take your pattern and cut the pieces out of your fabric.
2. I created myself a second mirrored piece just to be sure not to end up with two left sided mittens.
3. Cut the fabric with another 7mm of seam allowance.
4. You should end up with 4 pieces out your lining fabric, 2 smaller and 2 larger and 4 pieces out of your outer fabric, 2 smaller and 2 larger. The smaller pieces are for the inside of our hand. The larger pieces will cover the back of your fingers and your hand.
5. Also cut two stripes with a width of 4cm, those will be the wristband for keeping your add on mittens in place.

You should end up with 10 pieces of fabric.

Just a few lines about description of the pieces:

right side - is the nice side which will be seen from the outside when the piece is finished, in this example red and grey fury

left side - is the other side, in this example white and grey woven

1. Start with the inside parts, those are the smaller pieces. Stick them together right side on right side (the two sides which will be seen later on the finished mitten).
2. Sew the bottom line together with a straight stitch and turn the pieces so that the right side can be seen now and stitch again a flat seam.
3. Now it starts to get a little bit challenging.
4. Sew the lining parts together right side to right side.
5. Sew the outside parts together right side to right side.

Cut small triangles into the seam allowance of your outside parts. This is done to create a smoother outline after turning the piece outside out. Be careful not to cut into the threat.

Sew together the two side seams.

1. Now you end up with something that looks very strange.
2. So first flip the outside shell to show its right side (red) and then put the inside mitten into the outside mitten.
3. Turn it until the red fabric can be seen from both sides and the grey is on the inside. Smooth it with your fingers to have a nice shape.
4. Fold over your fabric stripe and sew it together, but keep a hole with the width of your lower mitten part in the middle. Turn it inside out.
5. Sew the stripe to the bottom of your mittens.
6. Put on the mitten over your glove and wrap the stripe around your wrist to create the loop.
7. Sew the loop together, while flipping the ends a little bit in to create a smooth end.
8. You are finished with your first mitten's cap.
9. Repeat for the second.

I'm now wearing my black soft shell mitten's caps for the third winter and I'm really happy with them.They are really comfortable and still looking good.

At the beginning I thought it might be too cold for my thumb, since it doesn't have this second cover. But since it is behind and below the bike handle I never had the wish to have it covered too during the riding.

Unfortunately my new red caps are a little bit to small for the knit wool gloves, but I will probably wear them with thinner gloves and keep the red caps in my bag in case of sudden rain.