Looking for a gift that's warm, cheap, easy to make and recycled, too?

Try on this pair of soft, felted mittens made from an old sweater -- a creative Valentine's Day solution with a personal touch.

Working with felted wool is a snap for beginner crafters. Betz White, 42, a former children's apparel designer from North Potomac, Md., began experimenting with the material while learning to use knitting machines in design school.

"You can cut it and it doesn't unravel, and it's easy to shape," White says. "You can steam it with the iron and make it do what you want it to do."

Felting, as it is commonly known in crafting communities (the proper term is "fulling"), is the process of shrinking a constructed fabric made of natural fibers, such as a knitted garment. The easiest way to felt is to take a wool sweater, throw it in the hot cycle of your washer with laundry soap, and line-dry or use your household dryer.

White suggests using sweaters made of at least 90 percent wool or animal fiber, such as angora. If your sweater lacks a content label, White suggests checking the care label.

"The more stringent the care is -- for example, dry clean only -- the better it'll felt," she says. "You basically want to ruin the sweater."

If you've done it right, White says the stitches of the felted knit should no longer be visible.

Felted sweater projects are easy, eco-friendly ways to repurpose a sweater after a laundry accident or give new life to outgrown knits. Thrift stores are also excellent sources for old sweaters.

To make the mittens, use your hands as a template. If your loved one has smaller or larger hands than your own, size accordingly. Using the template, cut out two fronts and two backs of the mittens in the felted wool. Pair up the fronts and backs, wrong sides together, and "sew" them up using a bead of fabric glue along the edge. You may want to pin them together as they dry.

White, who is also the author of "Warm Fuzzies: 30 Sweet Felted Projects," a how-to book on other felted sweater projects, suggests stitching the edges together with contrasting thread for a creative look. If you're new to sewing, you can use thread that's the same color as the knit. "Felted wool is so forgiving that you can sew a crooked line, because the fabric is so fuzzy that you can't even see it," she says.

The mittens are ready to be given and worn after the glue dries.

Steps for making felted sweater mittens

* TRACE

Make a template for the mittens by tracing your hands, holding four fingers together with your thumb set apart, on a piece of cardboard or parchment paper. Follow the outline of the hand and leave a one-inch edge allowance. Transfer the template to a piece of felted material by tracing the template onto the fabric with fabric chalk, disappearing fabric marker or a regular marker pen.

You’ll need four pieces in total: two for each hand. 

* CUT AND MATCH

Cut out the mitten fronts and backs, making sure to keep the left hand pieces and the right hand pieces together. If you traced the template with a regular marker, be sure you cut out the mittens following the inner edge of the outline. Match each hand together, wrong sides facing.

* GLUE (OR SEW)

Trace along the edge of the mittens with a bead of fabric glue, sandwiching the glue between the tops and bottoms of the mittens. Don’t glue the wrist edge of the mittens. You may want to pin the materials together after you glue. If you sew, use a simple running stitch about one-fourth of an inch from the edge.

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