Looking for a handmade gift idea? You can make some customized cute little mittens at home, just like these simple dinosaur mittens very easily and cheaply.

To start off with, you will need to make a pattern. Don’t feel like you need to go out and buy a pattern. If you have a pair of mittens available that already fit the child or if the child is available, use their hand or the mitten to make a pattern.

I made this pattern originally when I made my son some Fleece Minnesota Vikings Mittens and used his mitten to make the pattern. Since this pattern was almost 2 years ago, I decided to cut outside the pattern by a 1/2″ on all sides to make them a bit bigger since he is bigger. You could do the same thing if you have an older pair of mittens the child has grown out of.

You will need to cut out 4 pieces of fabric with the pattern. Have your fleece (fleece works really well to make warm mittens.) folded over and pin the pattern to it. Cut out the pattern twice on the folded fabric.

Now, you could easily just sew the matching halves together, but if you are making dinosaur mittens you will need to add in your spikes down the mittens. Just cut down the center of the top of both mitten. Place the spikes down the center as shown on the left and sandwich the spikes in between the 2 top pieces. Pin in to place and double stitch down the center with a 1/4″ seam.

Next, if you are adding eyes or any other kind of ornamentation, stitch them in to place before you stitch the halves together. It will be much easier to sew these things in to place while the mittens are still unassembled.

Then you are ready to pin together the top and bottom with right sides to the inside and stitch around the mittens only leaving the end in which they will put their hand through open.

Finally, fold the opening end over about 3/4-1″ and stitch down leaving a 1″ space  from where you started and ended so that you can run your elastic through. I like to put a pin in the end of my elastic so that I can use that to push it around the mitten. I used cording elastic for these mitten, so I just tied the elastic ends together, but other types of elastic you may need to sew the ends together. Then sew your opening closed and turn you mittens right side out.

If you are making these for a child who loves dinosaurs, you might also like to make them a few of these other dinosaur creations:

• DIY Dinosaur Felt Stuffie
• DIY Clay Dinosaur Bones and Dino Dig
• Fossil Cookies