Isaac loves to play with my oven mitts - and boy is it adorable when he sticks his arms all the way in them. But I thought, wouldn't it be great if he had his own? Well, now he does :)
And here is a little explanation of how it's done, if you want make one for your little kitchen helper:
Important note: This is intended as a TOY, not as actual protection from hot pans and such. Though the tutorial explains how to construct this with padding, as an adult-sized oven mitt would be, it is simply not safe to allow small children to handle hot objects. Don't do it. The end of the important note.
First, gather your materials:
- Cardboard
- Fabric - 2 coordinating fabrics, if desired, or just one
- Batting, felt, or other padding
- Thread, scissors, other sewing accoutrements
Grab yourself a mitten that fits your little person, or if the wee one will stay still long enough, you could trace their hand. I used a mitten. Trace it onto your piece of cardboard, then modify it so that it looks like a basic oven mitt shape. Cut it out. Mine looked like this:
Trace your pattern onto your fabric. I folded my fabric over, right sides together, and cut two at once to make sure I had one going each direction, as my brain tends to muddle things like that. I chose to use two different fabrics, so the inside would be different from the outside, but that's totally up to you. You will need four pieces total, however you choose to arrange them. Cut around the pattern, leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance.
Trace your pattern onto your batting or felt and cut around, leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Cut two.
Now you should have 6 pieces, like so:
It only gets easier from here. So, now you just take your pieces and make a nice little sandwich - inside piece, padding, outside piece.
Then, take that puppy over to your machine and quilt it together, any way you choose. I chose to do criss-crossing diagonal lines, classic oven mitt style. Go ahead and do this twice, so you have two sides, like so:
At this point you can also choose to sew around your edges with a zig-zag stitch, just to give it a nice finished look.
And now, just put your two piece right sides together (the side you want to be on the outside will be on the inside). Starting at the bottom of the thumb side, sew all the way around, stopping at the top of the straight side. Hopefully the picture will help explain this:
Ok, so now, cut a strip of your contrasting fabric, whatever you want to form the trim of your oven mitt, and cut a piece 2 inches by about 8 inches or so. Fold it in half (so you form a 1-inch by 8-inch strip) and iron it, then open that and fold the edges toward the middle, so that the cut edges are no enclosed, and iron. Take this piece and pin it around the bottom, unfinished edge of your mitt. Leave a little tail on one side, like so:
Sew this down, sticking as close to the edge without missing the trim. You will have quite a bit of a tail left over on the other side.
When you get to the end of the other side, form your loop by making a fold of your trim piece and tucking it inside.
Sew closed your open side, trim off the excess tails, and you're done!
Enjoy playing with your little kitchen helper!
