Sew a cover for your hands that not only keeps you warm, but is also wind- and water-repellent thanks to an outer fabric such as softshell.
Bonus – you can make the whole thing out of a fat quarter of each fabric!!
Materials
This is what you will need
– water-repellent fabric such as softshell or PUL – – soft, warm fabric such as squish or teddy fabric –
Fabric scissors or rotary cutter
Snaps or Velcro
Cutting
I would encourage you to measure the handlebar, and adapt the size for your requirements (adding your preferred seam allowance), but if you would prefer, the measurements I used are as follows:
50cm x 45cm (20” x 18”) - cut two – one in soft shell and one in squish - this fabric was gifted from Wattle and Slate
You can see how this fits on two different styles of buggies (single, above, and side by side double, below); it is generally universal.
I am using a 1.5cm seam allowance throughout, unless otherwise stated. Use a standard straight stitch, with an average stitch length of 2 to 3. Back tack at each start/stop.
** fun fact – a back tack is when you use the reverse function on your machine (usually denoted by a U turn image) to knot and secure your stitches so they don’t unravel later.
Take your two rectangles and place them RST (right sides together – this means the pretty sides of the fabric are touching and in the middle). Clip all the way around the perimeter.
** fun fact – pins will pierce the soft shell and make it less water resistant so clips are greatly encouraged!! If you don’t have any and need to pin, pin parallel to the raw edges, and as close to the edges as you can manage, you want the holes to all be within the seam allowance.
With the softshell on top, take a small side plate and draw rounded corners at all four corners. Mark, in the centre of one side, a 4” (10cm) gap. This, you will leave unsewn, so you can turn the whole thing inside out later.
** fun fact – if you’re nervous, or new to sewing with squish, use washaway zip tape to hold your seams in place while you sew. This IS NOT cheating.
Sew, starting at one end of the 4” gap, following a 1.5cm (5/8”) seam allowance, all the way around the perimeter of the rectangle, following the curves drawn previously. Stop at the other end of the 4” gap. The gap should be unsewn, the rest of the perimeter should be sewn.
Trim the seam allowances to 1cm throughout, EXCEPT where the 4” gap is. Around the curves, snip (using very sharp scissors) into the curves to allow for the corners to sit flat when turned through. Snip, at 1cm (1/2”) intervals from the edge of the fabric, as close to the line of stitching as you dare, taking care not to go through the stitching.
Turn through the hole that you left, and, using a chopstick or curve smoother, smooth out each of the four corners. I wouldn’t recommend ironing, but if you feel it is essential, please do so on low, and with the squish facing up.
Clip around the entire perimeter, taking care to tuck the raw edges in where the 4” gap was. Starting at one side of the 4” gap, with the softshell on top, sew, with a 0.5cm (1/4”) seam allowance all of the way around. When you get to the end, go over the first 1” of sewing to secure, then back tack to finish. Snip loose threads.
Add snaps at the following placements, ensuring that you take care to have males on one side (purple clips), and females (yellow clips) on the other. The red clips are there to show half way points. If you wish, vecro, here, can be used instead.
Along the top (longer) edge, there is a 4" gap (purple to purple), 6" gap (purple to yellow), 4"gap (yellow to yellow). There is no snap to be added to the red clip. Along the side, there is a 6" gap between each clip.
VOILA - one completed buggy mitten!
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