Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Felted Wool Mitten Ornaments

This article was originally published by House Revivals in December of 2011.


What do you get your mother-in-law for Christmas, when she really doesn't need one single thing?  That's what I was wondering when she came out to the beach house for a visit this fall. She happened to bring up some embroidered ornaments I had given her years ago, mentioning that they were her favorites.  Each of the embroidered ornaments had the name and birthday of one of her seven children. An idea formed.


Why not make little "grandchild ornaments" for my mother-in-law for Christmas?   

I had tons of small felted wool scraps leftover from the gift card ornaments I wrote about here.  The scraps were small and I was debating whether to throw them away. 
Why not make a smaller version of the gift card ornaments, using the leftover materials, for my mother-in-law's gift?


I love how they turned out -- about twenty in all, plus a couple of extras "just in case".  Filled with festive goodies, they will look so sweet hanging on a tree or a garland!


These were super easy to make -- not nearly as time-consuming as those embroidered ornaments I made years ago.
  • Create a mitten template (mine was about two and a half inches from fingertip to cuff edge)
  • Cut out two pieces of felted wool for each mitten.  
  • Blanket-stitch (or glue) the two sides together 
  • Add little embroidered embellishments, if you'd like, such as sweet little lazy daisies (or you could glue on some embellishments)


The cuffs and hangers are simply narrow strips of wool scraps that were glued in place.  Glue some goodies (I used bits and pieces rescued from old Christmas decorations) inside the top of the mittens.  Add a little name banner to each mitten and you're done!

This sweet little set of gift ornaments cost virtually nothing to make, since I was able to use scraps of cut apart wool sweaters. If you don't have old sweaters, you can probably find craft felt, glue, and embellishments at your local dollar store or discount store.

The embroidery took a little time (about fifteen minutes of stitching per mitten), but my amazing mother-in-law is worth it.  The parts that were glued together were done "assembly line" style in one evening.

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