Beaver Mitts

Sewing circle wanted someone to make beaver mittens.  My mom volunteered me.  So here begins my beaver mitt making story.  Step one: Choose a pattern.  The pattern I used was so generously given to me and mom by Karen Coffey.  I believe it was her mom's pattern.  

Said beaver mitt pattern.

Step two: Acquire beaver, leather, needles, thread, fleece, etc. in order to make beaver mittens.  I'm lucky I have a very crafty mother because I can go and steal supplies from her.  I probably should start buying some of my own supplies because I'm an adult now, but she'll never possibly use up all of her supplies in our lifetime.  So I steal.  And she doesn't seem to mind.  Too much.

Step three: tracing and cutting.

Step three: Trace and cut out pieces for the mittens.  This pattern requires three pieces for each mitten.  Six total (In case you can't do math.)  For the leather I had to trace on the shiny side because my black pen wouldn't show up on the black leather, go figure.  You can use either scissors or an exacto blade for the leather.  For the beaver fur, you want to trace on the back (obviously) and you need to use an exacto blade or utility knife because you don't want to cut the fur.

Exacto blade

I cut out all of my piece before I start sewing.  With the leather you don't need to be nearly as careful as you do with the beaver hide.  There's no fur flowage to worry about, the only thing to really concern yourself with is that you get to opposite sides.  To help with this process I label my sides A and B.  And done.

Wallah!  A cut out palm piece.