How to Make Glitter Iron On Elbow Patches for Cardigans and Flannels

If your bank account is still recovering from the holidays, but your desperate to mix up your wardrobe you can give new life to some of your favorite pieces by adding Siser HTV! Elbow patches are on trend and super easy to add on to a sweater, flannel, or any long sleeve tee. Here’s what you’ll need to make your own Glitter HTV elbow patches!

Supplies

Siser Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl
Vinyl Cutter
Siser Weeder
Home Iron or Heat Press
Heat Transfer Cover Sheet
Long Sleeve Garment

Step 1: Mark Your Elbow

Start by putting on the garment you want to add elbow patches to. I chose a 100% acrylic cardigan and a 100% cotton flannel. Bend your arm and mark your elbow with a pin. This is just going to be a reference point to start aligning the patches. After the patches are cut you can pin them on and see how they lie on the garment. Make any adjustments to their position until they are centered on your elbows.

100% acrylic cardigan sweater

100% cotton flannel plaid button up

Step 2: Cut Out Glitter HTV Patches

Elbow patches are usually somewhere around 4″-6″ long and can be a basic shape or something more inventive. For my sweater I want to keep it classy and add old gold Glitter elbow patches in the standard rounded oval shape. With the plaid flannel I want to show some love for my home state, so I’m adding Michigan mitten patches with a little heart in the area I grew up.

To find your cut settings for Glitter HTV go here if you’re using a Silhouette, here for Cricut, here for Brother ScanNCut, or here for GCC iCraft. When the HTV is cut, weed away any excess vinyl inside or outside your design.

Step 3: Heat Apply Elbow Patches

When you’ve centered the HTV over your elbows and pinned them to their proper place, you’re ready to heat apply. Remove the pins without shifting the HTV and cover the area with a heat transfer cover sheet. Krafft paper or a pressing cloth also work as a cover sheet.

Set your iron to “Cotton” and make sure the steam setting is off. One last thing before you bring the heat- make sure you’re working on a hard, flat solid surface that can stand the heat of the iron. An ironing board is not going to give you good results. The floor or a table are your best options.

Press down firmly with the iron for 20 seconds. If the whole patch wasn’t beneath the iron on the first press, lift the iron and press the section that was missed. Don’t slide the iron over the patch. Sliding the iron may seem natural, but it’s not best practice when it comes to applying heat transfer vinyl. Sliding can cause the HTV to shift and ruin the alignment.

Give the HTV a few moments to cool before peeling the carrier. The carrier should still be a bit warm when you remove it.

All that’s left to do is show off your revitalized garment!

The old gold Glitter elbow patches transform this sweater from boring to beautiful! Elbow patches are the simplest way to spice up an older piece of clothing to give it a new, trendy style.

The Michigan state shape is a much more custom approach to elbow patches. I like that the patches are unique to me and the way the Glitter looks with a bit of plaid peeking through.