Mittens for Miyagi/This Project is now closed.

The horrific triple disasters that Japan has been enduring is more than unbelievable. Seeing the tsunami waves hit the country immediately broke my heart. I knew what it meant to see those waves and I feared for those in danger. Families broken apart in something quite unexpected and unimaginable.

As Hawaii went under a tsunami warning, we worried for what might be coming our way. In the night the sirens continually went off to alert the impending danger yet to hit our shores. While Hawaii suffered some damage from the tsunami, it was quite minimal to that of Japan's disaster.

My heart goes out to the people of Japan. How I wish I could be there in person to help in what ever way possible. And so, I am working on a project for those children now in need. It is still cold in Japan, with snow on their ground and no heat in their buildings where survivors are being housed. I know there has been an effort for sending blankets and aid. I personally cannot afford to send blankets and so my husband and I came up with the idea to send mittens for the children. Miyagi was the hardest hit prefecture and so I name this project Mittens for Miyagi.

  I found a simple pattern online here at  http://www.sewing.org/html/letsmittens.html. Although, I made a few modifications. The materials I used were fleece, elastic and thread. I skipped the biased tape and show how to sew on the elastic in this tutorial. There are three sizes.This is the large size sewn in the tutorial

For each mitten, cut 2 from the pinned pattern. This is material folded in half with wrong sides together.

Cut 4 inches of elastic

They should look like this. With the elastic sewn on the wrong side of the fabric.

Then pin right sides together. Make sure that the end of the mitten is even in length.

Sew a straight stitch with the outside of your footer on the edge of your fabric.

Be careful on the curves!

As you round the corner, continue to sew down two more inches.

Pick up the footer and rotate the fabric continuing to sew up to the edge and following around the curve with the footer on the outer edge.

Sew to the end of the mitten and make sure you back stitch in the beginning and the end of the mitten.

Now it's time to trim the seam. Be careful don't trim too much!

Trim in the thumb area.

The finished trim should look like this. 

Notice there is no hemming required for the finished fleece end of the mitten.

Turn it right side out and it should look like this! Now sew the other one.

And you have a pair.

And one for the boy.

 I plan to sew as many of these mittens
in small, medium, and large children sizes as I can.
I hope that others will feel inspired to do the same.
Let no kind thought go undone.
May small and simple things do good when intentions are heartfelt.

(My thank you's to my friend Kristin!!! :)