Savin' Maven Monday: DIY Heart Sweatshirt with Elbow Patches

Happy Monday my loves!

I hope each of you had a great weekend. Judging from the social media feeds lots of you had great weekends as you were able to score pieces from the Prabal Gurung collection which debuted at Target on Sunday. And while you all were swooning over beautiful designer pieces, I was stuck in the house trying to nurse myself back to life. I've been battling a winter cold so I took minimal trips outside of my living space this weekend. And what better way to spend time in the house than to embark on yet another DIY project!!!  I know I'm on a roll-this makes two in a row.

Anyhow, I picked up a plain black sweatshirt on clearance at Target a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to do something fun and Valentine-y with it.

My eyes immediately became fixated on a pair of 'too small' cords that I scored at one of Plato's Grab Bag Sales and I instantly thought about elbow patches. I wanted to do something graphic on the front of the sweatshirt so I dug into my stash of acrylic paint(s) and went from there.

Here's a list of everything (else) I used:

**plain sweatshirt

**old cords (to create elbow patches)

**Acrylic Paint

**fabric paint

**heart stencils

**painters tape

** large foam paintbrush

That's it! You're ready to begin.

Step 1: Tape the stencils to the sweatshirt exactly where you would like your painted graphics to appear. The stencils were created by folding construction paper into quarters and cutting out a desired shape.

Step 2: Use a separate, large oval stencil to draw and cut out the 'cord' material for the elbow patches. Make sure to cut out 2-one for each elbow.

Step 3: Cover each elbow patch with fabric glue and place them on either sleeve of your sweatshirt. You may also sew the elbow patches on but obviously this method was a little easier and a lot less tedious. Allow the patches to dry in place while you are painting the graphics on the front of the sweatshirt. 

Step 4: Use your choice of acrylic paint to fill in the stencils that you had previously attached to the sweatshirt. Allow 1-2 hours to dry.

Step 5: Once the acrylic paint is dry, start from the bottom of the sweatshirt and use painters tape to create jagged lines all the way to the armpit of the sweatshirt. Paint the taped off (jagged line) portion with a highly contrasting color of acrylic paint. Allow 1-2 hours to dry.

Once you remove the painters tape, your sweatshirt will look a bit like this...

I must say that I am not thrilled with how this turned out AT ALL. The vision looked so much better as just a creative thought. I am, however, digging the elbow patches but that's about it.

What kind of Valentine's Day crafts have you attempted this year?

I can't wait to hear from you!

Thanks for reading.

XOXOXOXO