Craft of the Week: The No-Sew Patch

Crafts are a great way to exercise your artistic side but they are also very useful at bringing people together. 

Each week, we will post a simple and easy project for your enjoyment. This is a great opportunity for you to reconnect with your friends and family while enjoying a weekly craft night. 

Homemade Iron-On Patches
Patches are a great way to customize your clothes, backpacks, and other fabric accessories. Unfortunately, store-bought patches can get pricey and if you're not a strong sewer, making your own can be a challenge. Fortunately, there is an easy way to make your own patches with any design you can imagine. What makes this project even better is that you get to recycle plastic bags too!

What You Need

• Clean Plastic Bag
• Permanent Markers
• Scissors
• Felt
• Parchment Paper (do NOT use wax paper)
• Iron
• Hot Glue Gun
• Safety Pin

Step 1
Clear your work space for your plastic bag. Try to use only the sections of the bag that have no designs printed on it.

Step 2
Cut out a section that is a little larger than the size of your patch.

Step 3
Using permanent markers, draw your patch.

Step 4
Using a darker marker, you can add stitch marks to your design to give it that hand-sewn effect. This step is optional. 

Step 5
Cut out your design.

Step 6
Lay your design flat on to a sheet of felt. The color of the felt will have a slight affect on the color of your patch, so experiment with different colors. 

Step 7
Place a sheet of parchment paper (NOT WAX PAPER) over your design. Take care to keep your parchment and your design securely flat on the felt. 

Step 8
Set your iron to cotton with NO steam. Once heated, place the iron on top of your parchment paper and over the design. The parchment paper will protect your iron from the melted plastic. Apply for at least 10 seconds and take care not to burn anything.

Step 9
Carefully remove the parchment paper.

Step 10
Cut out your design from the felt sheet.

Step 11
Using your glue gun, adhere a small strip of felt to the blank side of the patch. Only add glue to two ends of the felt strip so that have space to slip in your safety pin in Step 12.

Step 12
Once the glue dries, slip in a safety pin through the felt strip.

Step 13
Pin your new patch on your favorite reusable bag, sweater, or other accessory.

*****************************************************************************

Fun Tip: When doing this craft with kids, it may be easier to first cut out shapes from the plastic bag. For example, you can cut out hearts from the bag and then give them to the kids to color and decorate.

Once you are comfortable with this technique, try different designs and shapes. The possibilities are endless!