Christmas in July with Eileen Hull

Hello and welcome to Christmas in July!

I am just loving Eileen Hull's Chapter 3 release and especially the gorgeous mitten die. I was itching to make a vintage Christmas mitten, so here it is .... in July!

And I couldn't stop at one, so made a pair!

I don't really have much in the way of Christmas stash so these Vintage Mittens are made mostly with my usual favourite vintage elements.

I did manage to find some Christmas paper and a couple of bells though!

White Felt Mitten Tutorial

I used the die to cut two slightly off white felt mittens. I found this gorgeous vintage photo online and printed it on ordinary copy paper. I played around with a couple of dies to see which size would fit well before cutting out the photograph and using my sewing machine to stitch around the edges.

Lace from my stash, some of which has been dyed with tea. 

It was lovely to use up some smaller pieces too.

I decided to sew the two mittens together at this point as I find I start glueing things on and then it becomes difficult to get the project under the sewing machine needle!

It's a bit tricky sewing around the thumb but I just "walked" the machine manually and it worked well.

I played around with some lighter lace and glued it on with Fabric Glue.

I decided not to go with the thumb piece in the end.

I embellished the top of the mitten with some bits and pieces from my general stash, although I did find a little wooden Christmas hanging ornament quite by chance! The ribbon has been tea died and the tag made from a little set of stamps which I find useful all year round.

If I am using pearl (or any) buttons in my project they might be glued on but I add a little cotton to make it look as though they have been sewn on. 

 

I feel it does make a difference!

Lace Mitten Tutorial

This was a piece of net lace which is quite see through, so I layered it onto some iron on interfacing. The only interfacing I had was quite thick and squishy so the mitten feels quite different to the felt one.

I then used the die to cut one mitten from felt and another from the lace.

I adhered lace in the same way as the felt mitten and then used my sewing machine to sew around the edges. This was more difficult given the "puffy" nature of the interfacing .... so don't look too closely!

I didn't want to cover up too much of the lace so die cut a small tag from Christmas paper and added a couple of bells to my ribbon along with the sentiment tag.

I really enjoyed making these vintage mittens and I think they will make a lovely Christmas present in their own right. The top is a little narrow but I am sure the mitten can be filled with some lovely Christmas Pot Pourri or little sweets.

Thank you for joining me today and I do hope you have a go a using this fabulous die. 

And do hop on over to Eileen's blog to check out more inspiration from Eileen's Inspiration and Educator Teams.  Click the link HERE.

Jennie x

Eileen Hull dies:

Sissix Scoreboards Box/Mitten #664510