Patch It

 In August, on our vacation, I found this purple vest at a thrift store. 

The color is what drew me in...pretty, right?  I inspected the vest to see if there were any holes.  No holes...good.  But, when I put it on the first time, I found a hole on the right side (my right).  Bummer.

Then I realized that I could patch the hole.  Problem solved.  I took out a few fabric scraps and went to work.  I thought about making heart patches but that was not working for me.  Then I thought about some sort of chevron patch.  I cut out the chevrons, trimmed here, trimmed there and settled on what you see below.  This was such an easy fix.

Here is the breakdown:

1.  Find a pattern you like (or freehand...that is what I did) and use it to cut the fabric.
2.  Pull out the Heat'n Bond.  Lay the material over and iron on (you have to be a little tricky here so
     that you don't get the Heat'n Bond on your iron).
3.  Cut out your fabric that has been adhered to the Heat'n Bond.
4.  Peel off the paper on the back (you will probably have to heat it up with your iron).
5.  Lay the piece or pieces on and iron them down.

The process was pretty simple.  However, next time I will do it a little differently.  I used the Ultra Hold Heat'n Bond and in the directions I read that you should not to sew through this type of Heat'n Bond.  Reading the directions is helpful because the last time I used the stuff it gummed up my sewing machine needle and kept breaking my thread.  In order to sew the edges down I should have used the Lite Heat'n Bond to sew.  I have not yet tacked down the edges, but I will get to that.  I was excited to wear the vest to work and didn't care if the edges started coming up (and, yes one of the edges is coming up).  Sew and Learn.

Have you creatively patched your clothes?  If so, let me know so that I can steal your ideas. :)

~Leslie