DIY Elbow Patches

Sometimes projects find me on Pinterest and other times I have to search for them my self. (Okay most of the time projects just end up in my feed and I find them that way.) This happens to be a case where I search out a solution to my problem. 

Some how (either by too much wearing or snagging it on a nail) my favorite sweater ended up with a pretty gnarly hole in the elbow. 

All right as you can see above, it wasn't that bad, but I still wanted a way to fix it without a chance of another hole happening. 

At first I looked up felting in the hole, but I think that only works with wool sweaters. (All right I didn't look too hard, just at the one pin I had about it and it didn't look like this was the right solution). So I began researching about elbow patches and I was pleasantly surprised to discover how easy they are to put on (and what a difference it can make to any long sleeve top)

Experiment

DIY Elbow Patches

inspiration from Her Campus

(all the way at the bottom)

Results

Apparently making elbow patches is super easy. If you follow the photo tutorial on her campus, the best way to size your patches is by tracing an oval slightly bigger than your hand. I wanted to add a little more pzazz to my sweater, so I made a square about the size of my palm and then made a heart shape about the size of my squares.

The worst part (mainly because I'm terrible indecisive) is picking out a fabric. In the end I went with a gold foil pleather (I only got a quarter yard and had plenty left over for other projects!). I liked that it matched the tiger and would be sturdy enough to deal with a lot of wear and tear. 

Then it came time to put it all together. To line up my elbow patches I put on my sweater and marked where the point of my elbow hit. I (took off the sweater) then line up the patch with the point of my elbow and marked it as well.

Okay the worst part really is when you're pinning the patch to your sleeve, not to pin the two sides together. (I it was easiest if I kept one hand in the sleeve while doing it).

And unfortunately there is the no way around it. You have to hand stitch the patches on and you're going to have to use a blanket stitch. So it's going to a super quick fix, but its worth it. And really I found overall that it took less time than I thought it would. (It took me two of Lion's naps to put them on, but that was mainly because I put one on and did other things and then worked on the other one later).

Overall, I'm completely happy with the elbow patches. I like how they add a little something to my sweater and I'm relieved that I can now wear my sweater without fear of ruining it for good.

And now I want to do this to all of my long sleeved tops!