Mitten Progress Report

Last night, I traced the pattern for the mittens on my faux fur, which will be the inside layer of the mittens.  

The good news is that I don't need to fell any of the seams on this project.  The leather outer layer will not ravel, and unfelled edges of the faux fur I'm using for the lining will not shed appreciably because they will be trapped inside the mitten itself when it's completed.  Also, though the directions say to use running stitch for the seams, I've been using whipstitch because the outside of the lining layer will not be visible once the mittens are complete.

The bad news is that I have had to rip the thumb free from the first mitten three times so far because I had not properly mated it to the rest of the mitten!  As near as I can tell, that's because I really should have sewn it on from the wrong side, even though the directions say to mate the thumb to the side piece right sides together; I still could have done that if I'd taken seriously the part about gathering the base of the thumb piece to fit.  the instructions say to sew the circular base of the thumb section to the side piece (which has a circular section) before sewing the two side pieces together, but I couldn't figure out how to fit the thumb base in correctly so long as the two side pieces were separate.

So tonight I sewed the other side piece partway on, and that did finally make it possible for me to get the thumb sewn in place. The poor thumb is somewhat twisted, probably because I didn't gather the  area of the side piece to fit the circular base of the thumb, as the directions require.  However, I may be able to fix that after the fact or may be bold enough to open some of the stitching and re-do it.    I will definitely gather the other side of the mitten so the two will fit together.

I also spent some time last night looking to see whether I have a needle for sewing leather.  The answer turns out to be that I have one but only for use with a sewing machine, not for sewing by hand.  So I will have to acquire one before I start the outer layer of the mittens.