Craft Project #3 - Wrist Warmers

A few weeks ago I was browsing through some random blogs and found a really neat craft idea for wrist warmers and thought "I can do that!" It's a bit cold in my office at work and although I wear layers, my hand are sometimes freezing! I really need my fingers free for typing and filing so gloves are not an option, but wrist warmers are totally doable and these were cute and super easy to make.

For this pair I up-cycled a pair of socks I had bought a few years ago, but after the first washing they shrunk and so didn't fit my feet any longer. I shoved them in the back of a drawer and forgot about them, until I found this idea and remembered I had them.

Here's how I made them...

- First, I cut the toe off of each sock and cut a small slit in the side about 1" down from the toe end for my thumb. The original post did not have this, but I thought it would help keep the wrist warmer in place better. If you add the thumb slit, be sure the heel of the sock is facing up and you cut the slits in the right spots.

- Second, I hand stitched the lace around the new opening. Now, the original post suggested using a tailor's ham(a cushion used for pressing curved areas of garments)to stretch out the opening while sewing, but I have never seen one of these let alone used one so I improvised and used a large plastic Easter egg. (I have kids - so plastic eggs are easy enough to find here!)Again, making sure the heel of the sock is facing up, I started sewing at the bottom so the seam would be more hidden when the warmers were being used.

-Third, I bunched up the extra material in the heel area at the top and sewed a cute button on it for some bling. Now was that easy or what?!?!

Seeing as the first pair only took me about 20 minutes to make, I thought maybe it would be good to have two pair of these. I changed the look a little bit and came up with these.

The only thing I can tell you to watch out for is raveling. Either find socks that don't ravel when cut, or be sure to hem the cut off toe end so you won't have problems later. I added the red edging to reduce raveling on my second pair and so far it's working great! BTW, if you really want to dress up your wrist buttons there is a great Etsy shop Alice Hunt Studio that makes beautiful and unique ceramic buttons . Sadly, I found mine at Walmart (with not much to choose from) before I found her shop.

These were so easy and fun to make and now my hands will stay warm and toasty when the frosty weather gets the better of my office!

Hope you all have a great day!