Heart Elbow Patches for Cardigans

I’m not one for getting all decked out for Valentine’s Day.. In fact, I once made an Anti-Valentine’s Day skirt in high school.. lots of safety pins and spray paint. Very ‘teenage angst chic’ as I like to call it. Regardless of your stance on the holiday, here’s a cute way using felt hearts to spruce up an old cardigan that you can wear year round! And like a lot of my projects.. I’ll show you a ‘no-sew’ way to do it as well!

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Supplies:

1 sheet of felt (found in most craft stores for $1.09)

Heart template (draw or print one out)

Marker

Scissors

Needle and thread OR fabric glue

Cardigan, sweater, or long sleeved shirt

Chalk

If you tried out the Refillable Catnip Heart Toy last week, you should have plenty of leftover felt and the heart template to get you started!

Using your marker, trace hearts out on back of the felt and cut them out.

Next try on your sweater or cardigan. Move your arms and shoulders around a bit so the sweater settles where it naturally fits. Bend your arm and place your hand on your shoulder. (This is starting to sound like the hokey pokey right?!) Using your chalk, draw a circle around your elbow. Repeat on the other side. The patch will cover most of the chalk mark and what shows can be easily brushed off.

For my ladies that plan on sewing..this part is important: Take your cardigan off before pinning! I don’t need anyone going to the ER because they made their elbow into a pin cushion! Pin your heart patches onto the spots you circled on the elbows of your cardigan.

Stitch around the heart, tie a few knots underneath, and you’re done!

For my ladies that do NOT sew: Run a line of fabric glue around the edges on the backside of your heart patches and a few dabs in the middle. Place down on the circled elbow spots of your cardigan. I recommend putting your hand inside of the sleeve where you push down the hearts so any excess glue doesn’t seep through and end up gluing your sweater sleeve together!

Pros and cons of sewing versus not sewing: Not sewing: Much faster and you don’t run the risk of pricking your finger a half dozen times like I did! The con is that you can’t remove the patch if you wanted to change the fabric or just go back to a plain cardigan. Sewing: Con is that it takes a bit more time and patience, but the pro is that you can easily snip the stitches and remove the patches when you want to! And I also like the look of stitches around the heart! Decide which method will work best for you and leave me a comment to let me know how yours turns out! : )