Padded Mittens

This is a write-up of a prototype stuffed padded mitten, including ideas drawn from the experiment.

Materials
The material was a fairly light, coarse, linen.
The stuffing was modern poly-cotton toy stuffing
The thread was undyed linen thread

Patterns

mittdiag

See the diagram.
A is the padded outside main piece of the mitten (tubes and seam allowance is indicated)
B is the main palm piece
C is the padded outer thumb piece
D is the inner, gripping thumb piece.

The notches in pieces A and B will form the hole for the thumb to attach to.
D is shaped to have spare material between thumb and main mitten to allow free movement on the thumb.

Sizing
Using tubes 20mm wide, 10% extra material has to be allowed for the padded pieces, plus a margin for seam allowance. (especially important to keep the margin around the thumb hole)

You can make the glove fit you had size (roughly) fairly easily – measurement across the back of the hand +10%+ seam allowance will be the width of A. B will simply be measurement + seam allowance. The thumb is more difficult as the padding is a smaller area than the grip.

Construction
1. Cut out 2 * A, 1 * B, 2 * C, 1 * D.
2. Sew the tubes into A and C, in straight lines, with tube 20mm across.
3. Sew A to B and C to D leaving a gap for the wrist & stuffing at the bottom of AB and for thumb and stuffing at the bottom of CD
4. Stuff A and C.
5. turn CD the right way out and slip it inside AB through the thumb hole (you need to do with to make it the right way out in the end, with the seam on the inside)
6. Sew the thumb seam. Sew the padded section on first, then the rest. The tubes should lie parralel to the ones on the main mitten.
7. Turn AB the right way out & hem the wrist section.

Difference from the Prototype
In the Prototype AB was made from two pieces of material not three – folded round so that the palm piece was too large and hand to be folded back on itself and sewn. The D was too small and needed to expand to cover the whole thumb hole.
The tube-seam next to the thumb hole was too close and burst.

Further Speculation
Might be a good idea to add a padded cuff to protect the wrist. There’s also the potential for a three finger version. For stand-alone gloves it might be a good idea to have the exterior of leather or a couple of layers of heavy linen.

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