Peggy Revell
Fort Frances resident Vi Belluz has been bitten by mitten-mania.
Since first starting out two years ago, she has been busy giving old sweaters new life with her sewing machine by transforming them into warm winter mittens.
“My sister in Thunder Bay originally started making them, and then she sort of wore me down, begging me to do them also because she couldn’t keep up with the demand,” Belluz recalled about how she first began making the mittens out of old sweaters in what has turned into a family-wide pastime.
Since then, her sisters in Edmonton and Winnipeg also have joined in with the mitten-making, with Belluz, herself, having made more than 250 at last count.
“Us sisters have really bonded over the mitts. That’s all we talk about,” Belluz chuckled. “We see a nice sweater walking by in the mall and think, “Oh my God, that would make a nice pair of mitts!
“It’s fun, it’s just a lot of fun, and we have a lot of laughs,” she added, noting her daughter, Christina, also has become involved in making them.
And working with her also has been a great bonding time between mother and daughter.
“My family is really big into using something old and making it into something new,” Belluz explained of the inspiration to make the mittens by recycling and reusing old sweaters.
“Every sweater has a story to it,” she remarked, noting she remembers where she has gotten every sweater she has used for the mittens—whether given to her or bought.
“We scrounge around the country for buttons and different sweaters,” Belluz added, saying her the sisters always are on the lookout and sharing their finds back and forth.
“Wherever I go, I look for sweaters,” she stressed. “I go to the Salvation Army’s thrift stores, or consignment stores, or wherever I can find the most unique sweaters.
“They’re all very unique. I do have a real dilemma sometimes about selling a certain pair, letting a certain pair go,” she admitted, saying it’s like giving away pieces of art.
One of the most memorable pairs she’s made came after a daughter had given her mother a sweater for Christmas (with skaters on the pond), which the mother ended up accidentally shrinking in the wash.
So Belluz was given the sweater and turned them into a pair of mittens, which the mother then gave back to her daughter as a gift.
Belluz currently is in the process of turning the sweaters which her granddaughter has grown out of into both mittens and hats.
Once Belluz finds a sweater she likes, she washes it in hot water to shrink it down, removes all the buttons and labels, and then cuts it down and flattens it out. She has different patterns established for different-sized mittens—children’s, women’s, and men’s—then cuts out the pieces and sews them together, using brand new fleece as a lining.
She embellishes the mittens with beading or unique buttons.
“I do use acrylics. I’ve found that the palms and the thumbs are better done with acrylics,” Belluz said about the fabric used.
“[Acrylics] last longer because older sweaters, when you wash them over time, they become more brittle,” she noted.
While Belluz has sewn throughout her life, making these mittens provides a new creative outlet.
“I’ve come to a stalemate with sewing,” she admitted, explaining that while she’s mastered the various sewing skills, made her daughter’s wedding dress, and even her husband’s three-piece suits, she’s reached a point where hemming pants and other similar tasks aren’t appealing and seem like a waste of time.
“I’m very creative, I like creating [the mittens],” Belluz stressed. “I like thinking up different patterns because every pair of mitts has approximately five or six different patterned sweaters in it.
“So it’s just creativity,” she reiterated. “The fun of it [is] seeing the joy on people’s faces when they see them.”
The mittens have travelled to family members in Finland, Belluz noted, and proved popular since skiing and winter sports are a “very big part” in Europe, as well as in Thunder Bay, where they’re also popular.
“And they’re so warm,” she added. “That’s the comment that I hear mostly—the warmth of them.
“I just truly enjoy making them,” she enthused.
