DewCatDesigns - Beaded Mittens

I thought I might share a bit about my own creations today.   As you may already know, I enjoy beading and embroidery.  At the moment, I make small beaded decorative ornaments, mainly for Christmas (when the sparkly silver-lined seed beads really come to life), but also as bag charms, gift toppers, phone charms, dinky hostess gifts, rear-view mirror hangers etc etc...

The latest cold snap (-2°C last week, and 6" of snow today!) got me thinking about all things warm and cosy, specifically a lovely warm pair of mittens - perfect for snuggling your fingers into.  So I thought I'd make a sparkly beaded mitten hanging decoration.

First I did some rough sketches to get the basic shape.

Then I converted this into a "pixel" picture - ie drawn in whole squares on graph paper.  This took a few iterations, and lots of re-drawing before I had a shape I was happy with.

Then I thought about colours and any decorative touches I wanted to add.  I decided on red and white / silver, and a small decorative pattern.  (Having now made up the final design, I'm not quite happy with the "decoration" and think perhaps a pretty bead or charm might work better).

Once the design was finalised, it was then time to start sewing!  I hand-sew each bead individually onto a small piece of canvas.  This particular design includes over 400 individual seed beads.

Once the beads are sewn, I trim the canvas to a few mm around the beads, and fold back the excess.  This provides a rough shape to which the felt backing can then be sewn.  I attach a hanging thread (securely) and lightly pad the mitten with a little stuffing to give it a bit of shape.

And we're done!  One bright red sparkly mitten to hang on your tree (or your handbag, mobile, rear view mirror, twiggy tree, key ring etc etc).

If you like the look of the mitten, take a little peek at my Etsy shop to see some of my other designs - www.etsy.com/shop/DewCatDesigns   I've even added a kit of a festive stocking so you can have a go yourself!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/212442836/beaded-stocking-christmas-decoration-kit?ref=shop_home_active_1