We recently designed some patches for my jean jacket over the summer and kinda liked how they turned out. I thought it would make a great DIY project to share here and finally got my act together.
Both Earl and I illustrated these together; the ice cream was inspired by my Baked Alaska Ice Cream Cone, the vintage badges from some old badges we came across, some french words (just because) and some folk art we've been inspired by.

The patches are fairly easy to make using the iron on transfer method, all you need is a selection of patch images you like, transfer paper, some duck cloth or canvas and an iron. You could even embroider over them if you wanted to. In fact I may do that myself with a few.




You can create your own designs or you can find the ones we designed in our Etsy shop here.  We decided to open up an Etsy shop for these to help us cover some of our admin costs making them.

And if you don't like to DIY and like the patches, the patches are also for sale in our Etsy Shop (individually) or as a set.  You can click here to see. They're all fairly reasonable.  Only $2.70 CAD.



You will need:
1 transfer sheet (for light fabrics) for inkjet printer
duck cloth or canvas fabric
computer and printer
images to print (make your own, or you can find the ones we designed in pdf here)
iron
scissors



To Make:
1) Create your design (or you can find the ones we designed in pdf form here) - making sure your image is mirrored in order for it to transfer correctly onto the fabric. If you don't know how to mirror, some printers have the mirror option in the settings.
2) Load the transfer sheet into your printer so it will print on the non-glossy unlined side.
3) Print image/design on transfer paper.
4) Cut out each design
5) Preheat iron to the highest setting (do not use steam).
6) Place fabric on a hard surface (I placed a breadboard covered with a tea towel onto our ironing board) and pre-iron to release moisture and remove wrinkles.
7) Place the printed image face down onto the fabric (the lined side will be the ironing surface).
8) Iron by using firm and steady pressure by holding the iron in both hands and applying pressure. Glide the iron very slowly over each area of the entire transfer making sure to cover all areas and corners for approx. 90 - 120 seconds total
9) Remove liner after about 5 seconds by peeling it off.

To make the patches, cut around each patch giving them a few millimeters allowance so you can stitch the patches on afterwards. Place the patches where you'd like to place them, pin them on to secure while you stitch and then hand or machine sew on. Yay!

A link to our Etsy shop is HERE!