Okay, we’ve been sick. We’ve been feeling all around miserable around here this past week. So I’ve been slacking in the blogging department. Hey, I can’t keep it ALL together ALL the time. I’d run out of duct tape.
So I thought I’d share this quick little project as a sort of mini half-post. I promise I’ll write a better one in a few days.
I’ve told you before how much our daughter loves Star Wars, and has a crush on C-3PO? So I should also mention, she’s a pretty rough-and-tumble little girl. She’s not afraid of a few bumps and bruises. Which also means sometimes she wears holes in the knees of her jeans. When I decided to get a little more life out of those jeans with a patch, I thought, “Oh, cool! I’ll put some simple, cute design with iron-on patches, and BOOM, done.”
…Until she said, “Can you do one as C3P0 and one as R2D2?”
Well, darned if I don’t like a challenge. So I did.
It took me AGES to figure out if that was even possible. I thought about hand-sewing felt, about stitching the detail on with embroidery thread. I thought of all kinds of magically impossible ways this could possibly work, and was coming up blank every time. Until finally, I lowered my standards.
I finally just cut a simple outline of the body out based on the references I printed out (in black & white in the center), filled the detail in with Sharpie, and ironed them on. Bam, easy peasy.
She liked them so much, she insisted she wear her Lego Star Wars shirt to match.
FAIR WARNING: One trip through the washer, and the edges started rolling and looked horrible, so maybe this isn’t such a cool project after all, unless you’ve got wicked mad sewing skills. …In which case, can you please sew my daughter some Star Wars patches? 🙂
Anyway, we’re all on the mend here. Hope you’re all feeling well!
busy mockingbird 
So cute! Hope you feel better soon
Sent from my iPhone
After you iron it, try some funky embroidery around it to hold just the edges! My mom always did that, usually it stuck!
Cool idea! Hope you are all fighting fit soon.
My mom used the zig zag function on her sewing machine to hold on the edges of iron-ons. Worked for years as my patch pants could get handed down in the family.
Thanks! I thought about giving that a try, but it takes some maneuvering with tiny jeans. Intimidating! Might have to go back & try it, though!
Wow!
I would like to suggest if you can find it they have printable sheets you can iron onto t shirts designs you pick. I cannot remember where to get those at, but basically you print on the sheet in your regular printer and then just cut to shape and iron onto the clothes. So far they seem to hold up well and look pretty awesome. Maybe you can find some of the paper somewhere and do the star wars logo stuff on those. I think they are called iron on heat transfer sheets or heat transfer paper. Best of luck and blessings!
That’s a good idea; I’ll have to look for those. Thankyou!
Sadly, the iron-on generally needs stitching to stay put. I wound up experimenting a lot with patches as my second daughter didn’t grow very fast, and has (apparently) sharp knees. I ironed-on layer after layer, I ironed-on single, tough layers and stitched around the edges, and finally I made these:
which we were both extremely pleased with, especially the braces on the snaggle-toothed monster on the other knee
Oh, that’s adorable! I’ve seen something like that on Pinterest, and had planned on doing that, until she insisted on the Star Wars characters! Yeah, I figured I couldn’t get away without some stitching. Dang! 🙂
T-shirt paint around the edges of the iron-on patches! It works best on freshly ironed patches – if yours have only been laundered once, re-iron them flat and run a bead of t-shirt paint around the edges. My girls like glow-in-the-dark paints. Not a forever solution, but it’ll help keep them going for a bit longer.
Love all of your posts! Thought I’d leave you a suggestion about how to finish the edge. Try “Aleene’s Stop Fraying”. It’s made exactly for projects like your little patches! No sewing required. Aleene’s also makes a glue the call “OK to Wash-It”. Works great for little embellishments like rhinestones & such.
Ooh, that sounds like an easy solution–I forgot about fabric glue. Yay, thanks!