Felt Elbow Patches – An Experiment

I already posted this in the DIY thread over at SW&D, but perhaps some MC'ers will find it interesting
as well. If you own Reevolving tape you can skip this thread and just tape away.


Felt Elbow Patches

An Experiment


Nothing spectacular, but perhaps interesting for some.
After a failed search for suede elbow patches (I found an American supplier, but they don't ship to NL),
I thought felt might work as a subsitute for suede.


Sweater with holes:




Prefab patches, bought for the sizes. I didn't like the shape (or material), so I changed it:




Traced:




Rounded the whole shape:




Voilà:




After some erasing:




Scanned:




Copied in PS:




Cut on felt:




Traced shape on felt:




Cut:




Yarn:




Pinned on sweater:




Half (hand) stitched




Complete:




And done:





* * *


New supplies:




Another sweater. Repaired before, but:





Felt options. The first choice was brown, but this particular brown didn't look good on the sweater
to my eye. Thus, navy:




With brown DMC (Double Mercerised Cotton) yarn:




Determining the right height with sweater on:




Half stitched with a new type of stitch (feston):




One done:




Also attached on a few points on the inside:



(All the cutting and (hand) stitching was done by Mrs NOBD.)

And the last one:

Well Mr. and Mrs. NOBD. My favorite sweater has needed patching for the past few years. I've sewn the edges of the holes to keep them from growing, but I really need to sew on the patches. Love that feston stitch and may have to try it myself when I have the time.

Awesome work, they look great man!

Wow yeah those did come out tighter than I had expected, nice work

Thanks, guys.

Emptym: I just found out the stitch is also—perhaps more commonly?—called "blanket stitch".

amazing that Mrs. NOBD can do the sew job

Good call with the navy on brown. Feston stitch looks neat with the felt, too. Great photography!

As always, great stuff! Neat handwork, but euh, does that make these 'handgrade' sweaters?

Let us know how it wears.

Personally, I would have gone the commando sweater route- a rugged woven wool. The stuff on my commando sweater is a fairly high twist, but decently thick yarned plain weave, but you could played with stuff like tweed too.



Parker said:

Good call with the navy on brown. Feston stitch looks neat with the felt, too. Great photography!

Click to expand...

Thanks, Parker. For the first sweater we only had the reddish brown and a very blue blue available (i.e. we were too lazy to go to the store first...).

TheTukker said:

As always, great stuff! Neat handwork, but euh, does that make these 'handgrade' sweaters?

Click to expand...

I guess so.

cptjeff said:

Let us know how it wears.
Personally, I would have gone the commando sweater route- a rugged woven wool. The stuff on my commando sweater is a fairly high twist, but decently thick yarned plain weave, but you could played with stuff like tweed too.

Click to expand...

I will.
Sounds good. Where do you get rugged woven wool? Do you perhaps have a pic?



NOBD said:

Nothing spectacular, but perhaps interesting for some.
After a failed search for suede elbow patches (I found an American supplier, but they don't ship to NL),
I thought felt might work as a subsitute for suede.

Click to expand...

good work as always and it is of course interesting. i prefer the stitching on the second run. this is absolutely great. well done mrs. nobd.

but this line bugged me completely. who in the world buys pre-cut elbow patches? this is no territory.

i have a sweater in the works right now. i just delivered the sweater and a big piece of leather to the tailor. there you go. actually, i have easier and "cheaper" access to suede than felt.



fritzl said:

good work as always and it is of course interesting. i prefer the stitching on the second run. this is absolutely great. well done mrs. nobd.

Click to expand...

So do I, fritzl. Und danke.

fritzl said:

but this line bugged me completely. who in the world buys pre-cut elbow patches? this is no territory.
i have a sweater in the works right now. i just delivered the sweater and a big piece of leather to the tailor. there you go. actually, i have easier and "cheaper" access to suede than felt.

Click to expand...

I thought they were readily available; why reinvent the wheel? Suede cheaper than felt? This wool felt (there's also cheaper synthetic stuff, but of course we don't want that...) was about €1,50 for a piece of 20 x 30 cm. It doesn't have to be "pre-holed", because you can easily stitch through it, and washing shouldn't be a problem.



NOBD said:

I thought they were readily available; why reinvent the wheel? Suede cheaper than felt? This wool felt (there's also cheaper synthetic stuff, but of course we don't want that...) was about €1,50 for a piece of 20 x 30 cm. It doesn't have to be "pre-holed", because you can easily stitch through it, and washing shouldn't be a problem.

Click to expand...

i got the pieces from the lederhosen maker, so it was free

hand stitched suede might be a hassle, because this kind, which is used for the lederhosen, is very soft. there's no "tension" where you can rely on.

will ask my alteration tailor, if she has felt lying around, if i have another patient.

cheers



fritzl said:

i got the pieces from the lederhosen maker, so it was free

Click to expand...

: ) Ah. Do people still wear Lederhosen?