Heart On My Sleeve

posted by Diana

I try to take good care of my clothes, but sometimes they give out before I'm ready to give them up... 

so this week I've got a quick and easy DIY to show how I salvaged some of my now-favorite pieces.

Here they are--cute and gaudy patches to cover up my holey messes. I've been liking hearts, but the patches can be any shape you dream up.

An approximation of the materials I used.

To patch up your own clothes, all you need is:

• Scrap fabric
• Scissors
• Thread

and

• Sewing needle (for hand sewing)

or

• Sewing machine

or

• Stitch Witchery (for a no-sew option!)
• Iron

My butt--you're welcome.

I shortened this skirt last year (more on that next week!), but I accidentally snipped a hole in it in the process of hemming it. Heart patch to the rescue! 

I cut out a heart shape from woven scrap fabric and used a sewing machine to zig-zag stitch this patch on. The tension on my sewing machine wasn't quite right--you can tell because the skirt fabric around the heart patch is a bit puckered--but the skirt is so full, it's not particularly noticeable when I'm flouncing about in it. 

The patch has an awkward placement, and I feel a little like a My Little Pony, but I suppose you can't help where you accidentally cut a hole through your skirt.

Rocking my flower earrings!

This sweater had a hole in the shoulder after only two wearings... it had a hole in each armpit, too. I chalk it up to a combination of the sweater's loose, fine knit and shoddy craftsmanship. But the sweater is really soft and I wanted to get my money's worth out of it, so I decided to mend it. I stitched up the armpits with black thread and went for something a little more flamboyant on the shoulder. 

The heart fabric is cut from the skirt in my "materials" photo above. It was only about twenty cents at the Goodwill Outlet (where they sell clothing by the pound to the public before selling the clothes to salvage and rag companies), so I felt pretty good about giving it a new life.

Since the knit fabric of the sweater would have gotten all caught up in my sewing machine (resulting in an even bigger hole and much more swearing), I hand-sewed this patch. I used the blanket stitch because I'm a fan of Frankenstein's monster-like stitching. I wish I'd used a contrasting thread color instead of black--the stitching only shows up on the heart since the sweater is a marled knit. 

I'm always a little anxious about machine washing things I make or alter, but I ran this guy through the wash, let it air dry, and it turned out fine. The patch frayed a bit, but I expected that since the lace material is woven and I didn't add any sort of stay-stitching.  

If you don't know how to sew, using Stitch Witchery or another fusible bond tape is another option for patching your clothes.  It allows you to bond your patch to your garment without a needle and thread. I don't have an example of a patch done with Stitch Witchery, but you can find a step-by-step tutorial here.

I hope you're inspired to fix up and mend your clothes instead of tossing them out!

Happy making!