BACK TO SCHOOL - Customize your clothes with Iron-On Patches

Published: Sunday, 20 August 2017

There are only a couple weeks left of Summer holidays and I am having mixed feelings about the whole going-back-to-school thing. On the one hand it will be AH-MAZING to get my life back, have more time to work (uninterrupted) and have some silence around the house for a few hours each day. This was the very first Summer that I was home full-time, and trying to run a business while looking after a very energetic child is no easy task. On the other hand, we've being enjoying not having a real schedule and real bedtime a little too much the past 6 weeks, so getting back to a proper routine is going to be hard! But if I gotta be fully honest with you, the number one reason I am dreading the end of Summer is that I just hate packing lunches.

This is going to be an exciting year, though. Emma is going into Grade 1 and she is super nervous, and I am in disbelief. Like how is she this big already!!?? And to rub salt into the wound (ok, it's not that bad), we have now discovered that she has a loose tooth. The very first one! It's all happening too fast, and I'm not sure I can handle it. I need the clock to stop and chill for a moment, alright?

So to get into the 'spirit' of back-to-school I thought I would make things. Making things is my cure-all. It puts me in a good mood, it's the perfect distraction, and it gives me something to look forward to. During the next couple of weeks I will be sharing a series of tutorials that I cleverly named "Back-to-school" (I'm a genius, I know). I hope that they inspire you and put you in the mood for books and backpacks!

To kick of the series I thought I would share the easiest of DIYs ever known to men. Decorating your clothes with iron-on patches is nothing new (hello 80's!), but embroidered patches are super trendy right now. I've seen them on anything from shoes to button-up shirts, pants, dresses. I'm loving the trend for little kids... and not so little (I may or may not have bought some for myself... never grow up!). And there are so many fun patches out there, it's hard to pick. I chose to personalize a hoodie because that's one of the things my daughter needed the most for the new school year, but you can pick whatever item you have on hand. It doesn't need to be clothing, either... think back packs, lunch bags, pencil cases... anything goes.

For this project you will need:

- plain hoodie or other item to personalize

- assorted iron-on embroidered patches (I got mine at Ardene, but I have seen them on many arts & crafts, fabric and fashion stores in town, as well as Amazon)

- ironing cloth (a piece of cotton fabric or a fabric napkin will do)

That's all. Well, I guess you'll need an iron, too.

First thing you'll do is lay your item down on a flat surface. I got this grey hoodie from Walmart, on clearance for a ridiculously low price. The tag says "Boys Activewear", but I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why this sweater is meant for boys and not for... say... girls? It's just a grey hoodie. Hoodies are hoodies, no? Whatevs... I digress. Take your iron-on patches and place them on your item, play around with them until you find a layout you're happy with.

Then take your iron on a high heat setting (as high as your item can handle... be careful not to burn it!), and using your ironing cloth, iron your patches in place following the packages direction. You may need to iron from both sides (right and wrong side of your item) to set them well. You may also need the help of extra little hands to make sure you're ironing correctly, as shown below.

Once the patches are firmly glued and secured, you're done! However, I knew this was quickly going to become Emma's favourite sweater, which means I'd be washing it on a regular basis, so once they were pressed, I actually sewed all around them with coordinating thread to make sure they would never come off, no matter how many washes. But this step is completely optional. You can just keep an eye on them after a few washes and, if they're starting to peel off, just add a drop of fabric glue to secure them again.

The whole thing will take you about 5 minutes, unless you're terribly indecisive about which patches to use (which may or may not have been my little assistant's case). The simplest of updates, but how fun is this hoodie now? Not just "Boys Activewear" anymore, amirite?

And now we have a bunch of cute leftover patches, so we'll probably be refashioning something else soon (it can easily get addictive). But for the meantime we'll be soaking up the last few days of vacation, and sleeping in whenever possible. Because life's too short, and so is Summer.