Fleece hats, scarves, mittens -- oh my!

I am not doing a handmade-only holiday, or even close to it, but I do love to give handmade things when I can, and particularly to the ever-growing list of babies and kids in my life. Maybe it's because they are less likely to be critical of a crooked seam. ;-)

Since these have already been given out I'm free to share them here now! I wanted to get these done early so that they could be used the whole winter season. I made seven sets of these. I didn't intend to make mittens too, but after I made a pair for my son Nate I really liked how they turned out, and they were pretty fast. First some pictures then some details for anyone else interested in making some.

The pink girl set with kitty cat scarf:


All my kitties:


Boy set with bunny scarf:


My model:


And now some sewing info...

SCARF -the pattern is from the book Cute Stuff. Even though the directions are really just cartoons I don't have any tips or changes to add here.

HAT - free pattern from the Martha Stewart site! I do have some tips for these:
* make sure the stretch of the fleece goes around the circumference of the head
* if you intend to join the top in a pompom (as I did for the girl set above) add 1 to 1.5" to the height. I didn't add any to the instructions on my first one and it wasn't tall enough. This one became Nate's and I just cinched the corners up to make "ears", also a cute option.

MITTENS - free pattern here. It's not a quick just print and go pattern, it's a small one on a grid that you use as a guide. I used a grid with 5/8" squares for the toddler/pre-schooler size. There is a flaw in the pattern though, if you add up squares on one side it's 8 and on the other side it's 9, you need to either lengthen or shorten one side.