3.25.2009

Spring Cleaning Dust Mitt Tutorial


I went to a great local rummage sale recently where you can get a bag of clothes for a dollar. I was a little gluttonous and grabbed everything that I thought I could cut up and use for something else - although I didn't have anything in mind at the time.

Later when examining some of my finds, the materials dictated the project - and I ended up using three different garments together for this project. I used a sweatshirt, a terry cloth shirt (who wears terry cloth shirts?), and the cuffs from a shrunken sweater. You could do this same project with just a sweatshirt and a hand towel if you wanted. Or if you have a swiffer, try this similar tutorial.


Typical of my sewing style, this tutorial has few actual measurements - just deal with it.

First I cut the terry cloth shirt into a rectangle that was a bit wider than my hand and twice it's length. Then I cut four - four inch strips the same length as my rectangle from my sweatshirt. Next cut slits along both long sides of each rectangle, towards the middle, but not quite touching so that your rectangles are shaped sort of like a pipe cleaner. You can see mine aren't very straight.


Lay one strip fuzzy side up, towards the left side of your terry cloth rectangle, and sew down the middle. Lay the next strip so that it overlaps the first and repeat, making sure you don't sew down any of the fringe from the first rectangle. Repeat this with the next two strips so that you have spaced the four strips somewhat evenly across the width of your rectangle. It should look like this:


Now fold the fringe on each long side in like this:


Now you will fold the terry cloth rectangle in half with your fringe inside, and sew up the side seams. Folding the outer fringe in will insure that none of it is caught in the seams.


Once you have sewn your side seams, with the mitt still right side in, place the cuff from your sweater (or take one from your sweatshirt) and put it inside the mitt. With a zig zag stitch, sew the edge of the cuff to the edge of the mitt. My cuff seemed a lot smaller than the circumference of the mitt, but I stretched it as I sewed and it ended up fitting fine. If you're worried about this, you could pin it first. It should look like this once you have sewn it on (sorry for the fuzzy picture).


Turn the mitt right side out and trim any stray threads. Ta da!


Now get dusting!

Made one? Add it to the wewilsons pattern pool.

15 comments:

Very Shannon said...

LOVE IT! This will come in so handy! Thanks for a great tutorial. It will be up on my blog www.luvinthemommyhood.com by the end of the day.

Allison Cecil said...

Can you also post a tutorial on how to obtain the person at the other end of the Dust Mitt who will clean my house for me?! :) This is amazing and I needs! to be my next project.

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

Oh I love this! Thanks so much for sharing, I'll be linking.

Anne said...

I guess this means I have no more excuses for my messy house??

I posted a link to your tutorial on Craft Gossip Sewing Blog: http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-sew-a-cleaning-dust-mitt/2009/03/26/

--Anne

Heather - Dollarstorecrafts.com said...

Fun project! Found via One Pretty Thing, and I'll be linking to you from http://dollarstorecrafts.com on 4/7.

Heather

Anonymous said...

brilliant way to recycle...I think I will make some that are children sized so I can't actually get my hand in them ;-)

juliecache said...

Love this! Will need to put a link on my blog. Just did the fiber experiment.

Ginger said...

I love how you can re cycle to make this handy mitt ,Whice we all can use.
thank you so much for the tutoeial also going to re link .
hugs

jamestownboys said...

This is just about the coolest homemade thing I've seen!!! LOVE IT and I'm definately going to make some - my kids will love to use these too!!!
Thanks :)

Anya said...

Very cool tutorial! Thanks for sharing the idea. I have tons of old clothes to go through and will definitely be making couple of these mitts.

I linked to your tutorial from PassiFlora http://passifloramag.com/2009/05/healthy-herbs-and-dusting/

Melissa said...

Brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing. Totally bookmarked!

Katie @ Cheep Ideas said...

This is WONDERFUL!!! I've added it to a "Green Cleaning" roundup on my website today.

You can also grab an "I've been featured badge" if you'd like.

Great site!!

home cleaning services said...

this duster is looking very cute. I tried to make it but failed. I will take help of my sister, she is very good at this stuff.

Cleaners Glasgow said...

What a great concept and looks like creating it is the fun part, don't know about the dusting part.

Jackie said...

I love it! I would try to make a duster like this so I can use it in my next House Cleaning because it looks really cute.