Patch It Up

So I’ve been working on this (very) special denim jacket for a couple of days now. It was a glorious find on none other than *bows down* eBay. This little number is not only 30+ years old, but also in near-perfect condition, was the bargain to rule all bargains, and it just reeks of quality hard-wearing 1970′s denim. Oh, and to top it off, I bought two. TWO. The only thing is, I bought them for the purpose of splattering them in Aztec patches and bronze studs. Here goes nada…

I bought this fabric on Etsy, perhaps a site that deserves a full-body plank rather than a humble bowing down. I could (and do) spend hours gazing in awe at the work of thousands of humble (yet ferociously ambitious) artisans, always flabbergasted not only by the product of hours of blood, sweat and tears, but by their photography, packaging and marketing skills: How do they take such breathtaking photos? How lovely has this been wrapped? Wish I could think of a name that cool… These people are not only selling you a product, but a brand that is entirely the work of themselves. Total. Respect.

Anyway, with this fabric, it was love at first sight. Usually I’m hesitant at buying fabric online because you can’t really see the fabric. I mean, sure it says 100% cotton on the description, but what kind of 100% cotton? There’s diaper cloth, dimity, drill, duck, flannel, flannelette, gauze, gingham, lawn and muslin. There’s organdy, outing flannel, oxford, percale, pima, polished and don’t get me started on poplin. Don’t forget sailcloth, seersucker, you get the picture. So you can understand my dilemma. But with this fabric, the photography was so fine and good that I could see all the in’s and out’s of this lovely gem. I wanted a vintage-style fabric that would complement the jacket; imagine those course, itchy, giant rice bags – only smoother. Not only this, but it had the perfect distressed Aztec pattern. Operation Find Perfect Fabric: Complete.

So here’s my special little guy posing for a photo:

 Well it doesn’t exactly look like a girl, does it now?

Although he looks totally gorge without any embellishments, I think that after 30+ years, he could do with a little change. Variety is the spice of life, you know.

Firstly, I made templates out of card. Since I’m too much of a stinge to have invested in a tracing wheel, this involved a lot of estimating where the border of my template should be, then matching it up with the jacket, then re-drawing the template, etc, until I could cut it out. This was quite easy to do though, since I only want the fabric to sit within the thick hems of the jacket. Therefore, I suggest laying your jacket out flat. Place some wrapping paper over the area you want to cover, and, using a pencil, trace your template out by feeling the thick hems and drawing just inside them. Cue edited photos courtesy of Paint:

I then pinned the templates to the fabric and cut around them. Hopefully, when you place the fabric where you want it to go, it should fit into place.

Here, I’ve pinned, then sewn on the two long patches:

And here are the two breast patches that I split into three pieces: (Guess what I’m gonna put between them! Exciting!)

I made sure I zig-zag stitched along the edges of the patches before sewing them onto the jacket to avoid fraying. Yes, I am also too stingey to invest in an overlocker.

And here we are so far:

Stay tuned for my next post of the back of the jacket- but for now, arrivederci!