Upcycled, vintage and secondhand style for your sustainable wardrobe

Vintage-Patch Red Check Shirt Valentines Refashion Before and After

Read All About It Red Gingham Shirt Iron On Patches Restyle – Valentines Challenge Day 4

The world is full of gingham shirts so I wanted to make this one look just a little different.  I pulled out a few patch designs from my collection including contrast blue and black gingham and white skull and crossbones on a black background (pictured) both ideal for boys’ garments.  After much deliberation, I decided some black and white newsprint patches were just the thing to add a quirky touch of humour.  The circular shape in child size 8.5cm diameter is a good fit and makes a change from oval or rectangular.

The Valentine’s Challenge

The Challenge is to celebrate the launch of Vintage-Patch’s new range of mini patches for smaller size childrens’ clothes, and I’m seeing how many charity shop cast offs can be refashioned into something cool before 14th February.

How many upcycled transformations can we make from this heap of kids clothes?

Vintage-Patch Mini Range of Iron on Patches for Children

The new ‘Mini’ range is available in heart, circle, square and oval shapes.  They join adult and child size patches in most of our usual fabrics. Simply choose the patch fabric design you like (shown in our shop as oval by default) and then select your preferred size and shape from the options button.  TIP – Check which measurements will be suitable for your garment. These are listed in the ‘additional information’ section.

Equipment and Materials


I love gingham, so I knew I wanted to do something with this little shirt as soon as I saw it looking forlorn in the pile of cast offs.  It’s in great condition, and my final choice of newsprint circular elbow patches give it a fun twist. Reminds me of the saying ‘black, white and read all over!’

My equipment for this refashion was minimal – an iron, tape measure or ruler, and pins or chalk to mark position plus needle and thread and scissors.   Plus of course, my choice from the following patches:

BUY PATCHES PICTURED IN THIS POST

Black and White Newsprint Iron on Elbow Knee Patches
Blue and Black Gingham Iron on Elbow Knee Patches
Black Skull and Crossbones Iron On Elbow Knee Patches

The Refashion

Once I’d measured where the patches should go, I removed the patch backing and ironed them into position with a hot dry iron.  I also had a snippet of fabric left that I added as an accent on the chest pocket.   Full instructions are in each pack or check out our INSTRUCTIONS.

I could have left the patches unsewn but I prefer to finish them off with a line of running stitch around the edge.  I find this simple and quick to do and like the hard wearing and attractive finish.

The Result!

Ta Da!  Here it is… as always I welcome your feedback.

Why not have a go yourself?  Better still, email me a photo of your creation so I  can feature it on the website.

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