Entries into the mitten contest continue to trickle in, see parts one and two as needed. As I’d mentioned in part one, I’d based the mittens I made for Jessica from a vintage pair of mittens owned by my ex husband (Joe Fasanella). On the off chance he’d trust me with them again (these belonged to his father), I called him up and asked to borrow them. After extracting my promise that I wouldn’t take them apart -he knows me too well; things I really really like, I take apart- he sent them to me. Cool huh? Now you’ll see what I meant when I said these mittens produced for the Civil Conservation Corps during the Great Depression were totally unique. Below is your standard view, nothing untoward thus far.

Below I’m parting away the thumb from the left mitten. Do make note of that seam in the crook of the thumb; it’s an unusual jog.

Below is another view of it, off side.

And lastly, is rough sketch of an approximation of the pattern. The thumb has a true gusset. Some gussets aren’t really gussets being insets or oddly shaped insertions rather than actual additions of area. This one has the gusset built into the thumb piece. Obviously, this sketch is an estimation since party-pooper Joe Fasanella won’t let me take it apart, heh heh heh.

I’d say this version would be the more difficult style to sew. Let’s see if we have any takers on developing this one further. Speaking of takers, we’ve had three other entries. Carissa said:

First of all, we call these “muffins” around here. And “slippers” are also “flippers” in my household, but hey, we’re weird! In high Carissa fashion, I went ahead and developed a short term obsession over these muffins and I have really fallen in love with the results. The first thing I did, was tried to get into Jessica’s brain, however scary a place that may be, and I tried to solve the mystery of the flipped thumb.

I didn’t come up with the neatly laying gusseted thumb that a lot of people were thinking about. I was wondering up she wanted to improve the range of motion for the thumb and also had the top piece so much bigger so that the seams wouldn’t be directly on the sides of the muffins. I also noticed that the finger part was slightly bulbous for finger spreading room. –I really LOVE wearing muffins in the winter but I hate the limited range of motion that I feel with the thumb and the fingers. It’s like, my fingers and thumbs are either bound up and I’ve lost all association with the rest of the prehensile races, or I have floppy bags over my hands and can’t turn a door knob to save my life. So, my goal was, use this pattern as a spring board to a muffin with the seams on the inside of the hand, a good range of motion, room to spread the fingers, but maintain sleekness. I think I reached my goals! Yay! I’m so scared!! I can’t believe I’m letting you look at these, Kathleen!

I had some difficulty with these photos (please send yours as separate attachments) so blame me if these are too small. Two views from Carissa.

Then Christy Burton said:

I typically don’t consider myself an obtuse person, but I don’t get the mittens! I first sewed my inside and outside pieces together thinking that inside meant the palm and outside meant the back of the hand. (Gathered that from you saying to walk the two pieces together.) It worked okay but the thumb was twisted (my curves didn’t hit in the same place) and I thought I did something whacky. Then I gave up on sewing the two pieces together and made my own damn mitten with only one piece. When my boyfriend John got home, he said “where’s the inside? This pattern says inside and outside”. I NEVER thought that maybe inside meant… inside. Is he right or was I right to sew the two pieces together? Either way, I’m sticking to yoga pants.

Then Carol raises the bar and puts us all to shame with her very in depth mitten making experiment she posted in the forum. Here are some sample photos.

I’ll most likely post Carol’s entry in a post all its own since you have to be a member of the forum to see it (forum membership is now a premium only offered to financial supporters of Fashion-Incubator).

Now I have to trot off and get my stuff together for my trip to Austin. Eric and I are leaving tomorrow morning so I’ll most likely blog from there. Have a great weekend.