ABOUT OUR MITTENS

Truly the best friend your hands will ever have!

100% GREEN WITH UPCYCLED WOOL & RECYCLED FLEECE. AMAZINGLY SOFT, AND WICKED WARM!

MY WOOL, LINING, & BUTTONS:

I use re-cycled sweaters, blankets, scarves, hats, pretty much any clothing that is wool. Most all are 100% wool, some are 80% or more wool. The different types of wool I use are lambswool, alpaca, mohair, merino wool, angora or cashmere. All the wool has been felted or pre-shrunk. (washed in HOT water and dried on HIGH heat. The linings are made from fleece blankets that I purchase at Berkshire Blanket, which are made from recycled plastic. Most of the buttons I use are recycled, however some of them are purchased new due to the quantity I use.

MITTEN CARE INSTRUCTIONS:

My mittens are super durable, long lasting and the care is easier than you can imagine.  The mittens can be machine washed on any temperature setting and dried on low heat, air fluff or hung out to dry in the fresh air!  Wool will stretch when it gets damp, so if they start to stretch out a bit from wearing them in wet snowy weather, just put them in the dryer on air fluff ad they will tighten back up again.  I stand behind my mittens 100%, so if you have any problems at all, please contact me.

HOW WICKED WARM MITTENS ARE MADE:

  • 1

    FINDING THE RIGHT MATERIALS

    I am very fortunate and thankful that my sister Kelly and her husband Gary are thrift store junkies and live in Georgia where the thrift stores are plentiful. They are responsible for my abundant inventory of sweaters.   When I get a box sweaters delivered, I feel like a child on Christmas morning.  It is so exciting opening the box and seeing all the colors and patterns.  I immediately sort them, wash them in hot water and dry on high heat.  Buttons are removed and they are hung up in my shop. 
  • 2

    DESIGNING THE PERFECT MITTEN

    Matching the different patterns and colors is so much fun, it is like an art project.  Next I start cutting with electric scissors, (thanks to my husband Pat for researching and discovering those).  Matching and cutting is the most time consuming step in the mittens, I don’t like to have any waste, so careful planning before cutting is a must. 
  • 3

    SEWING YOUR MITTEN

    Next is the sewing, after a few years the demand became so high for my mittens, I solicited for some help in the local paper.  Wendy, an incredibly wonderful seamstress came to my rescue and has teamed up with me to sew these beautiful wicked warm mittens together. I am very thankful she decided to look in the classified adds that day, I would be lost without her. She sews the outer mitten and the lining together and then returns them to me.
  • 4

    THE FINAL TOUCHES

    The final steps are attaching the lining to the mittens, making and attaching the cuffs, sewing on the buttons and putting my little trademark X on.  All of the cuffs are made from the same recycled materials, so that also takes careful planning.  I love putting them together and doing the final touches. I try on each and every pair myself just to make sure the recipient will LOVE them as much as I do!
Upcycled Wool Mittens with Fleece Lining
Upcycled Wool Mittens with Fleece Lining
Upcycled Wool Mittens with Fleece Lining
Wicked-Warm-Mittens-Lori-Kaltner

MEET THE CREATOR: LORI KALTNER!

I have been sewing my entire life, growing up my mom made most all of our clothes and let us experiment with the sewing machine at a young age.  As an early teen, I started making some of my own clothes. In high school I made my own prom dresses.  I made barbie and baby doll clothes to earn extra money as a stay at home mom, taught sewing and tailoring in the evenings and also made many of my son's and daughter's clothes. I have always been big on recycling, and when I saw a pair of  up-cycled wool mittens, I  LOVED the idea and couldn't get my mind off them.  I have Reynauds and my hands are ALWAYS cold, so I had to figure out how to make them totally hug my hands. One evening I took the fleece blanket I was wrapped up in to my sewing room and started cutting it up and lined a pair of mittens with it.  It felt amazing and so incredibly soft.  What I was searching for was right in front of me the whole time! It was an extra fluffy fleece blanket from Berkshire Blanket, these blankets are made from recycled plastic, so my mittens are 100% GREEN!  And so MY up-cycled, totally “green”, amazingly soft and Wicked Warm Mittens were born!

WOOL FUN FACTS. DID YOU KNOW THAT....

  • The fleece of sheep has been used to make human clothing since the Stone Age.
  • Wool is still able to keep you warm even when it gets damp.
  • Wool is fire resistant.
  • Wool is wrinkle resistant. That's ironing one less thing for you to think about.
  • Wool can be extended to up to 70% of its natural length and when the tension is released, it returns to its natural length. Now that's durable!
  • Wool absorbs and releases water vapor as humidity rises and falls, which is why it works so well as a natural insulator.