Beaver Mitts (Part Six)

Last and final post regarding beaver mittens.  Hahaha.  I stretched this out way too long.  I have since finished these mittens and another pair.  The first pair was donated to the sewing circle auction.  Mr. Nick Hanson is the proud new owner of that pair.  The second pair was supposed to be for the Christmas bazaar but I'm not going to be here for that.  Sigh.  They never take my travel into account when they plan that thing.  It's frustrating.

Sew, sew, sew all the way up each side.

I have to change my thread a lot.  I don't like have super long thread because it always gets tangled.

Fur is tricky.  It's never quite perfect looking.

I normally don't sew with a thimble.  After a few days though... your finger tips get pretty sore and tender.

Just a wee bit more to go!

Finished product.

I line the beaver mitts with fleece cut and sewn in the same manner as the mitten itself.  I add a little leather loop on the top side in case the owner wants to add a yarn neck piece.

Beaver Mitts (Part Five)

The next two pieces to sew together are the piece you just finished and the only other piece left!  Funny how that works, hm?   You sew them similarly to how you did the thumb on the first piece.  Start at each side and steadily work your way up both sides.  This takes a considerable amount of time.  I believe that goldfish and champagne are necessities to this process.

Clearly champagne and goldfish are key.

Work your way up both sides to the top near where the middle finger sits in the glove.  This pattern involves very minimal gathering.  IF gathering does occur the gathering should be done with the beaver hide.  If there is excess leather you get the joy of ripping and trimming down the leather.  Fun stuff, hm?  You betcha!

The end is in sight.  Oh yeah.  Then you get to repeat the whole process.

Beaver Mitts (Part Four)

In this photo you can see the two types of stitching that I use.  You can also see the welting between the fur and the leather.  I really love skin sewing.  I think I like it even more than beading!  Who knew?

In this photo you can see me working my way up the sides of the thumb.  I always attempt to guess the length of the welting by using one piece.  Sometimes I'm right on other times I end up having to cut it, when you're guessing, don't underestimate.  Overestimating is the way to go.  That way you don't end up with little pieces of welting.

Mittens are awesome to sew because you sew with the fur side in.  Much easier than parka sewing which is best done fur side out (it's warmer).  I have yet to attempt a parka but I'm thinking a bigger skin sewing project might be fun.

This is what happens when you stay up too late drinking wine and skin sewing.  I have no other excuses.

Beaver Mitts (Part Three)

The first two pieces of beaver mitten that you stitch together are the bottom piece and the palm piece.  Start at the edge where it's flat and sew to where the thumb starts, making sure that the corners meet up.  With this pattern you have to gather the beaver fur just a little bit.  I use two types of stitches, changing between them quite frequently.  The two stitches that I use are a basting stitch and a whip stitch.

Part one

Once you have the straight part all sewn together, use two needles and start on each side of the base of the thumb.  Work on one side for an inch or two then switch to the other side and sew for an inch or two, back and forth until you meet at the top.  This should keep the thumb from twisting up too much.  Ripping is the worst and I try to keep myself from doing it too often.

Part two

Beaver Mitts (Part two)

Step three continued: Here's the beaver that I used for the tops of the mittens.  You need at least one pretty large beaver for the tops and another decent sized beaver for the bottoms, or two smaller beavers.  The mittens are meant to be worn over other gloves.

I trace out both pieces before I start cutting anything.  Usually I trace out all of the pieces before I cut anything so that I know I have enough and that the fur is all going the right direction.  Tracing kinda sucks because you can't pin the pattern to the skin.  One option is to tape the pattern down to the hide.

Once you have all of the pieces cut out you need some welting.  I just use strips from the leather used for the palm of the mitten.  Cut them loooong and skinny, about a 1/4 inch thick.  When I sew with the welting I put it so the rough side is to the leather and the smooth side is to the fur.  Just personal preference.  You can welt however you like.

Ready to start sewing!

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.