Made With Love: Preppy Hearts Sweater

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I have been working on some handmade gifts for my 3 kids for Valentine's Day.

Today I wanted to share what I made for my older daughter.

Her style is a bit preppier than my younger daughter so I wanted something that was a little bit along those lines.

I decided that some heart elbow patches would be a great way to update a classic preppy sweater!

(My apologies in advance for the poor lighting and photo quality!)

I found this J Crew wool and angora blend sweater at the thrift store for only $2.00!

(You want to make sure the weave of your sweater is a smaller type weave.  You could also use a sweatshirt instead if you prefer!)

 

The thrifted sweater option was perfect just in case I totally jacked this project up and had to throw it away. 

For the patches I found this cute plaid fabric at my local Hanocock Fabric Store.

It was on sale plus I only needed a very small amount.

It cost me about $2.00 (if you're keeping track that means I am at less than $5 for this project!)

I also used this white cotton fabric that I had at home for the back of the hearts to give them more weight.

I cut out a heart template to the size I wanted using some regular printer paper.

Then I pinned the heart template to the plaid and white fabrics layered one on top of the other.

I cut them out then pinned the two heart fabrics to the backside 'elbows' of the sweater.

Since the sleeves are fairly snug and the sweater fabric stretches a lot I decided it would be best to sew the patches on by hand.

You want to be careful that you don't sew the front and back of the sleeve together!

Because I used a very simple hand stitch and the fabric naturally unravels a little on the edges, my patches have frayed looking edges and the stitching is very visible.

I actually wanted this sort of 'homespun' look.

But...you could probably use some FrayCheck beforehand or maybe glue some rickrack or sequin trim to the edges with fabric glue.

And here is my finished Preppy Hearts Sweater!

The total cost was about $5.00!

It did take me a couple of hours to complete the project because the hearts were hand-sewn 

(with love in every stitch of course!)

You can also check out the Sweetheart Sweatshirt my younger daughter is getting.

It was a 1 hour project that cost about $7.00!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney