Making Mark Mitts

Mark's been looking for a new pair of leather mitts.  He hasn't found what he wants, so we've decided to make them ourselves.  Since we don't hunt, we ordered some moose hide online.

We followed the instructions for buckskin mitts by the Urban Aboriginal.


We traced Mark's hand on to a paper bag and added a 3/4" seam allowance around it.  Then we created the thumb as per the instructions.

Time to make a mock up. We don't want to find out that the pattern needs adjusting after we cut the leather.  So we took some old material (yes, it was an old Halloween costume) and traced the pattern.

Then all three pieces for the one mitt were cut out and sewn together.  A mock up mitt. 

Trial one was way too small and the thumb was too long.  Trial two still pinched a bit and didn't quite flare enough to go over the parka.  Trial three seems just right!

 

 Now to work with the moose hide. We laid out our third pattern with the wider hand, shorter thumb and extra flare of the wrist.

We traced the pattern out.  Two fronts, two backs and two thumbs.  Making sure that each piece was traced correctly so that the good sides of the leather would all line up.

 

We cut out the pieces and voila!  Something that kind of resembles mittens. Now to sew them together with the awl.

 

Clothes pins worked very well to hold the pieces together as they were sewn up.

Ta-Da!   Leather mittens!  

 

Now to decide what fur to trim the cuffs with....

Winter in the Fort

Winter is a wonderful season - regardless of all the funky weather this country has had this year.  We've been enjoying the sun and snow around our little cabin.

Today's adventure was a little cross country ski on some of the nearby trails.

Off we go!

A little frosty by the end.

 

  Of course it isn't really winter with out some set line ice fishing.  This guy made a delicious dinner.

Back in December, when the lake was frozen but not snowy, we skated off into the sunset.

 We even put up Christmas lights on the cabin this year.   Uh, I mean Olympic lights (yes, we are still enjoying the fact they are still up) 

And of course we build snowmen...  not quite the same as last year's Sesame Street characters

Ok, not the same genre as last year at all....

photo courtesy of JJ Baillaut

It is turning out to be a great first winter of marriage around the Fort this year!

A Taste of the Olympics

Go Athletes Go!

And it's on!  The 2014 winter Olympics have officially started.  The flame is lit.

And what a great opening ceremony in Russia. 

In order to celebrate, we modified our weekly pizza night to show our Olympic spirit.  There is even a dusting of white cheese to represent the snow for the winter games.