DIY Heart Felt Patch Leggings

I fell in love with the Mini Rodini Grey Heart Knee Patched Leggings from last season. I thought about purchasing them, but realised I could make the leggings myself. I came across this amazing heart felt patch tutorial from Honestly WTF and thought to myself, yep this is what I want to do. With Valentine's Day right around the corner, heart felt patched leggings would make the perfect gift for Edith.

I followed all the steps from Honestly WTF, you can check out her tutorial here, but I thought I would try to explain myself. 

What You Need:

- Pair of Leggings (I got my from Baby Gap, but any leggings will do)
- a 36 gauge felting needle
- a felting sponge, but any thick kitchen sponge will do.
- some wool roving
- a heart cookie cutter (can be purchased at your local kitchen shop) 
- an iron

With the leggings on, place a piece of tape at the knee, where you would like the heart to sit. Do this for both knees. Remove the leggings and insert the foam block into one of the legs. I inserted the foam block from the top of the trousers, this made it easier to place in the leg.

Next align your cookie cutter with the piece of tape. Adjust the positioning of the cookie

cutter if needed. Grab some of your wool roving and place it in the cookie cutter. Make sure to fill the bottom of the cookie cutter evenly with the wool roving. But don't get too much wool roving or you will have a very thick heart patch. I learned this the hard way:)

Take your felting needing holding it in an upright position and start to jab the wool in an up and down stabbing motion. Make sure to keep your needle in an upright position and not in a slanted position, this will break your needle. Keep stabbing the wool until the surface is flat and even.

Now remove the heart cookie cutter and use the tip of the felting needle to tidy up your edges or bits inside the heart. Patch up any bare or uneven spots by adding more wool roving where needed.

Now carefully peel the leggings away from the foam block and remove the foam block.You'll notice the fibers have transferred to the back of the leggings.

To smooth and set the patch, spray some water on the patch and iron the patch on a wool setting.

Note: While ironing the heart patch, I felt my heart wasn't complete. If you feel this is the case, re-insert the foam block and start stabbing the wool roving again. I went over the patch a couple of times until I felt the heart was flat and even. And then repeated the ironing.

Once you have the heart the way you want it on the leg, start on the other leg!!!!!

It's super simple and loads of fun!!!! Yes, I admit my hearts are perfect, but I think I did pretty good considering it was my first time ever felting! I'll post a picture of Edith wearing the leggings on Valentine's Day!