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Brown 18th Century Mitts

I'm century hopping again! A couple of weeks ago I got the urge to make a pair of 18th century mitts. I've always wanted a pair, but have been slightly intimidated by them for some reason. However, I have a winter 18th century event coming up so it seemed like the perfect time to face my mitt fears. I want to stay warm!

(My main mitt inspiration. Does anyone know the title and artist?)

I scaled up the pattern from Costume Close-Up and then fit the muslin on my arm. It actually came together much more easlily than I had anticipated. The original mitts are lined in leather, but I'm not a fan of working with leather or having it touch my skin, so I went with a light-weight linen for the lining and a brown/black changeable silk taffeta for the outer fabric.

The mitts are entirely hand sewn. Using the instructions in Costum Close-Up as a guide, I first sewed together the thumb pieces and then attached them to the main body. then I assembled the lining and outer pieces separately by folding over one seam allowance and topstitching the seam with a spaced backstitch. The lining is then inserted into the outer fabric, wrong sides together, and the edges are turned in and topstitched. Before assembling the brown silk pieces I added the pink chain stitching to the top of the mitt. The original has decorative stitching on the seams, but I wanted something plainer for my first pair. I added the pink point lining last and this was the most difficult part. I turned the edges in, but it was very fiddly and I'm not entirely pleased with the results of this method.

The mitts went together easily, except thumb was a bit tricky to assemble. I'm not entirely pleased with the left thumb join, but to redo it would required taking the entire mitt apart. This first pair was more of a practice excercise or experiment. I wanted to test oout the construction before making a second pair in cream silk, decorated in light pink to wear with my aqua francaise.

Overall, I'm pleased with the fit of the mitts. There is some bagginess and wrinkling at the wrist, but I couldnt make them any tighter then and still be able to get my hand through them. The original has a cutout with faggoting on the inner wrist and I think I will try that out on the cream pair for a smoother fit. But faults and all I still love my brown mitts!