anna sews - elbow reinforcements

One of my favorite items of clothing is a slouchy, grandpa sweater I got from J. Crew a few years ago. Here is me wearing it under a leather jacket a few months ago (it is currently 90F in Boston).

The problem is, I've worn it so much there are holes on the elbows. I've been meaning to get elbow patches for a while now, but I did not get a chance before leaving for Europe last week. I knew I wanted to bring the sweater - since it is the perfect plane ride companion - but I needed to do something about the elbows.

I stumbled across this post for Duplicate Stitch Heart Elbow Patches on the blog one sheepish girl.

I love the idea of heart patches, but my sweater is not chunky enough to achieve the same type of duplicate stitch. Adding another round of stitching though was sure to act as a good reinforcement. Here is what I came up with:

For the stitching, I used Rowan Yarn Cashsoft 4 Ply in Eau de Nil 450. I had it from my knit your own dog (pug!) project. 

I think it came out well. It worked great on my trip, and reminds me of something that would be sold at anthropologie. 

After I completed this project, I came across the company Woolfiller on pinterest. The company (based in the Netherlands) sends customers a kit to repair holes in wool clothing through melding wool with wool via a felting needle. It was featured in Time Magazine's 50 Best Inventions of 2010. 

The results are very cute, and there is a lot of room for experimentation. I may have order a kit for my next sweater emergency!