More Marvellous Mittens

Purple organic pointelle gloves

I had grand plans for making lots more pairs of gloves today. Above, you can see the total sum of my glove-making endeavours.

Admittedly I got rather sidetracked this morning by a hat, and didn’t start making the gloves until after lunch. Unfortunately, it turns out that making gloves from organic cotton pointelle is the most enormous pain in the backside. It’s very thick and very stretchy. It’s difficult to mark, and it’s difficult to cut and sew accurately. All of this makes working with it very slow going indeed.

I’ve prepared the backs and the bias tape for two more purple pairs, and cut the contrast stripes for three more pairs. Those will be teamed with more pointelle but in brown.

However frustrated I might be by the length of time it’s taking me to sew these, I have to admit that I rather like them! The bias trim (which is also around the thumbs) is a pleasing finishing touch, and I’m happy that all of the fabric is organic cotton. Now I just need to get a move on, and finish making them!

Mr & Mrs Magpie’s Marvellous Mittens

Floral and lace gloves

Ta-daa! A glove that actually fits onto my disembodied hand! I spent most of Saturday making the left glove, which involved a lot of fiddly seams, unpicking things, wonky elastic, and a certain amount of swearing. Once I’d got the left glove worked out though, the right one came out lovely! So this first pair will be mine, to wear and to display on the very shiny hand.

Three more pairs in the making

Once I was happy with the first pair, I cut out all the pieces for another three. (Pairs, not gloves.) I have plenty of this pretty floral jersey left over, but I’ve used up all of the lace edging, so future pairs will have a different trim. By the end of Saturday afternoon I’d managed to sew up six little thumbs, with the rest set aside for today.

Marvellous Mittens

And here they are, finished and packaged – three more pairs of fingerless gloves ready for the Frome Steampunk Extravaganza!

I have plans for some slightly more “masculine” (by which I simply mean “less frilly”) fingerless gloves to go alongside these. I have some gorgeous organic cotton pointelle fabrics in brown and purple, which should go perfectly with cuffs made from the remnants of the organic cotton stripes I used for the bow ties. I’m going to make a start on those tomorrow, so watch this space…