How to Sew Sweater Mittens Like Bernie Sanders’s

Bernie Sanders’s mittens has been all over the news lately. And I was thrilled to read that his mittens are in fact not knitted. Instead they are sewn together using of a recycled sweater and then lined with fleece made out of plastic bottles.

You can’t buy Senator Bernie Sanders’s mittens, but you can make them yourself.https://t.co/LU83k8Tk9H

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 23, 2021

And has luck would have it, I have already done tutorials for how to sew sweater mittens and add lining to them, using my Tova Mittens Sewing Pattern.

So in case you have missed those tutorials, I thought I would share them again, since it’s such a great way to add new life to an old sweater. And it’s not just a eco-friendly project, the end result actually looks like the mittens were indeed hand-knitted. But in reality, they took less than an hour to make! Talk about a win-win.

How To Sew Mittens From a Sweater

Follow this super simple and beginner friendly tutorial for how to sew mittens using a regular sewing machine or serger (with bonus video!)

Adding Lining to Mittens

In this step-by-step tutorial I show a really clever way to add lining without any chafing seams that will rub your skin.

Don’t have a sweater, but still want to sew mittens?

You can of course also sew my Tova Mittens Sewing Pattern using regular knit fabric (like fleece, wool or any type of knit fabric). I’ve also done a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to sew mittens using regular fabric.

I hope these ideas gave you some inspiration on how to recycle old sweaters. BTW here is an interview with the teacher that made the sweater mittens for Bernie. So happy to see that sewing and refashion made the front page for once!