New life - elbow patches

It's fashion baby

It finally happened. I managed to wear out a part of a knitted cardigan long before the body of it gave in to all the (ab)use. My best and currently only knitted cardigan was no longer just see-through-thin on the elbows, it was threatening to sport a giant hole any time soon. 

Handmade clothes are precious in my wardrobe and this was the first cardigan/sweater my mum ever knitted for me, so it is even more valuable to me. Thankfully, elbow patches are not only in style, but fairly cheap as well. I paid 50 DKK for my faux leather (aka machine washable) ones. 

Placement

Getting the perfect placement of these patches wasn't easy. I wouldn't have been able to do it without my mum's help. There were a few factors to keep in mind:
1) The worn patches had to be covered (obviously)
2) The new patches had to be centered on the sleeves
3) The new patches had to be placed at the same point on both sleeves.

The latter proved extremely difficult.

Secrets revealed

After struggling with the placement for a while, the measurering tape revealed a great secret, that not even my mum, the knitted of the garment, was aware of. I finally knew why I keep tucking at one sleeve, but not the other. There is a good 2-3 cm difference in length from one sleeve to the other. Of course the obligatory teasing of my poor mother ensued. Somehow she had been in a hurry to finish that cardigan. 

Iron and sew

With the placing problems resolved, we turned to the actual attachment of the patches, which frankly felt a little like cheating as they were ironed on. They were also neatly perforated, showing me where my stitches should go. It turns out sewing on patches takes longer than I assumed. I spent a good few 5 min brakes in betweeen studying, sewing the patches on carefully.

The final result

For the first day or so the patches were rather stiff and uncomfortable, but they are getting more pliable by the day and are placed perfectly (it was so worth spending a long time on placement). My guess is that these new patches will add a good 3-5 years of wear to the cardigan and they don't look too shabby either.