I'm making mittens for little children and have heard putting cords or strings on the mittens to string through their coat sleeves has been out lawed. Is that true? I live in Iowa.
Next thing you know, they'll be outlawing sledding and the little tassles on snow hats. And kitties and puppies.
Cripes, people are paranoid.
BUT...as far as mittens go, I like the ones with really long wrists so my boys can roll them together (like a pair of socks) and put them in the sleeve of their coats when they're not wearing them at school.
If you're making them for your own kids you can do whatever you want.
If you are planning to sell them, I would leave of the strings. I agree that "people" are paranoid, but there are also lazy parents and litigious ones and they WILL sue you if their kid somehow gets themselves strangled on the cord...
According to the CPSIA a LOT of things has been outlawed in the children's department, even including what kind of yarn you use. If they are for your own children, you can do what you want, but if you are going to be selling them or anything like that, they need to follow current safety procedures. The strings are considered a choking hazard.
You can buy mitten clips instead.
I am sure if you are just making them yourself for your own kids you can do what you want. They cannot be sold anymore due to the strangulation risk. We just used the short elastic clips to clip them to the coat sleeves.
just as a drawstring on a jacket hood is a choking hazard, so is the corded mittens.
You have a lot of good advice on leaving the string off. For those who think it is paranoia, it isn't that they are trying to get parents scared of everything. I know a lady who lost a toddler to stranglation from the stings in a hood when he went down a slide, to her it is a all to much reality, not paranoia. The reason they outlaw things like this is because of the children who died or was harmed by the very thing and not wanting others to suffer the loss of a child and thank God for those laws since since some people don't use common sense. We hear it all the time "When we were young we didn't buckle in and we ate cookie dough with raw eggs in it, we drank out of the garden hose... and we are fine" We forget that there are those who died because they weren't buckled in, those who died from raw eggs and those who got sick from the bacteria in the garden hose and they died teaching us life lessons. So I would say leave off the string since you can't make it short enough to be safe.
Yep leave off the strings - maybe buy some of those little clip on elastic mitten holders and sell them with the mittens, or find a place to buy the clips, and add a tab to the mitten, and a clip on the end, to clip to the coat cuff, so it is part of th emitten andthe clip can't get lost too? You don't want any kid getting hurt/strangled, or any lawsuits.
The lady below talking about doing them with an extra long cuff is a great idea too!
Jessie
