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There are a ton elbow patches tutorials out there. And mine won’t probably be a whole lot different. But it’s a great way to breathe new life into an old sweater. That’s exactly what I did today. I also went thrifting to my local Salvation Army, and came home with amazing finds, but I am going to keep them to myself until tomorrow!

So let’s get paching:

Here is my old cardigan from Kohl’s – I bought it for my friend Erica’s pink flamingo Birthday party!

To find the place where you are going to place your patch – simply bend your arm and mark the point where your elbow sticks out the most – some people do it with markers, I used a pin, but be careful not to poke yourself ;)

Then button your cardigan down and lay it flat back side up. It’s also a good time to pick your fabric – I chose something I swapped back in September – it’s half rayon half cotton, plus this fabric is dirt proof (though I have no idea how it does that!)

Now you are going to cut out the patches. I used a piece of stationary paper, because the size fit perfectly. I am sorry I don’t have a pattern for you, but this is where you are going to have to wing it and use your creative side – I have seen girls do hear-shaped patches, round, oval, and other kinds. I went for oval.

After I drew the pattern and cut out two patches out of fabric, I pinned them onto the sleeves. A good trick here is to insert a piece of cardboard into the sleeve – that way sewing will be a lot easier, you won’t have to worry about sewing up the sleeve, and the patch will lay flat. You are also going to need quiet a few pins:

As you have probably already noticed, I added lace (again – YAY for freecycle, if it wasn’t for Cynthia, I wouldn’t have had this amazing  lace trim!) Why lace? It’s feminine, it’s pretty, matches the fabric and the sweater, but most important – it hides the edge of the patches. I didn’t want to bother with folding the fabric over, so I simply covered it up with lace!

And viola -

 

The patches are intentionally different too :) So don’t ask about matching!

Feel free to ask questions, or leave comments! Have a great weekend everyone!

Xo,

ZhenyAH!