DIY Liberty Shoulder And Elbow Patch Tee |

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I’ve always liked tees with shoulder and and elbow patches as decorative accents and thought this was the perfect way to use small scraps I have of one of my favorite Liberty prints, the Margaret Annie. This is a great way to use up some of your favorite scrap prints to accent a plain tee. I also used scraps of my Margaret Annie to make my Liberty fabric scrap hat a few weeks back. Check out that post and my other fabric scrap projects here.

DIY Liberty Shoulder and Elbow Patch Tee by Mad For Fabric

I used this free tee pattern from the Peppermint Magazine here to make my tee. Direct link to the instructions here. I cut a medium but found it a big snug in the shoulders so you many want to cut the armhole one size up from what you normally wear. I used the sleeve of the free Plantain t-shirt pattern from Deer & Doe for the placement and pattern for my elbow patch. I used a walking foot to sew this tee. A walking foot is great for knits to prevent stretching and was also very useful for my DIY Quilted Jacket I posted about here.

I drafted the shoulder patch by measuring 3.5 inches down from the shoulder seam and added a quarter of an inch seam allowance. I opted to sew the shoulder patch fabric on top of my tee knit fabric. Since Liberty is very lightweight the tee fabric underneath helps stabilize it on the tee.

Liberty Shoulder Patch Pattern Drafting — Pattern of Shoulder Patch ( left)
Shoulder Patch Pattern Pieces ( right )

Since the knit fabric stretches I cut my elbow patch fabric on the bias so it would stretch with my knit fabric when I bent my elbows. I didn’t want zigzag the raw edge of the elbow patch on my sleeve because I was afraid it would cause the knit fabric to stretch. Instead I used the freezer paper method to turn my elbow patch raw edges over. I then used Aleene’s No-Sew Fabric Glue to temporarily baste the edges and then sewed to the sleeve.

Liberty Elbow Patch Appliq — Elbow Patch with Edges Ironed Over Freezer Paper ( left )
Edges Glued Down With Basting Glue ( right )

Here are close ups of the shoulder patch and elbow patch.

Liberty Shoulder and Elbow Patch Tee Close Up Views - Mad For Fabric — Close Up Views Shoulder Patch ( left )
Elbow Patch Sew In With Straight Stitch ( right )

This was a great project to do some stash busting and create an interesting focal point on a plain tee. With fall coming around the corner I’m sure I’ll find lots of occasions to wear this.

Thanks for stopping by today and happy “mad” sewing!