I promised I would get this post up yesterday (well, technically I wrote that at like 1AM, aka promising it for today ha phew), so here are my ideas and tips on DIY jackets:
- Find a local person/company to embroider the back (front, side..) for you because those embroidery machines run anywhere between $8,000 to $12,000, and that’s not factoring in the technology and skill it takes to use them.
I’m so happy I found Sew Judi Sew, right in the Tysons Corner area.
She charges a very reasonable price (usually around $20, depending on what your design is) and finishes it quickly (usually within 5 days). I have gotten two jackets embroidered with “Blazers and Bubbly” by her now, one of which is a winter coat that I wear out on the slopes in Colorado, so “Blazers and Bubbly” takes on a whole new meaning for those little stoners. The other jacket is the varsity style, which I ordered from Abercrombie & Fitch. If you want to play with a few designs first and aren’t really sure what you want to run with, then ordering a cheap jacket to work with from Shein.com may be a good start for you.
- Pick up some iron-on letters from Michaels or order from Amazon. This method is a bit more tricky, because you have to make sure the letters are perfectly aligned (unless you just don’t care) before you iron them, and thennn you just hope they don’t start falling off…which mind did. I chose a combination of metallic and fuzzy iron-on letters from Amazon, and I love the way they turned out BUT the metallic style is already peeling off, so now my Blazers and Bubbly retro denim jacket is more of a decoration for the back of my chair. If I go this route again, I’ll be sure to spend a few extra dollars and read up on a couple more iron-on letter reviews.
- Start collecting patches from all of the places you travel and order funny vintage patches off of ebay.I started collecting flag patches in high school from the countries I visited, and had to order a few for the places I wasn’t able to find them, but it made for a fun travel vest. See that post here. I also have a quirky collection of vintage patches, which I found on ebay. That’s definitely the best place, in my opinion, to look for these. Etsy tends to be overpriced, and ebay has plenty of reasonably priced gems to choose from. I plan on covering the front of my Shein.com varsity jacket with these patches. I like to sew the patches on, even if they are iron-on– can’t have anything falling off!
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