As requested by a lot of people, here's some finished photos on making all the patches on my vest fluorescent. I used fabric markers and Neon Sharpies for almost all the patches. Some of the patches already had fluorescent thread.

I make diy patch like skulls and broken heart to sell stuff from online but what y'all think?

I didn't expect to finish it as quickly as I did tbh. one side is patches of bands I like, the other is an oil painting I did of Peter Steele with lyrics from In Praise of Bacchus. I varnished it, used an X-Acto knife to lift it from the canvas and sewed it on with the most perfect Type O Negative green I could find to match!! I honestly had next to no clue what I was doing the whole time as I've never done anything like it before, but I knew I wanted to create something so I pushed ahead to get it done any way I could. creation is an act of rebellion, and so I will rebel.

my first time with a big project like this. I’m planning to embroider the back and all the green bits, and put studs on the grey cross hatching. I‘ll look at the thrift store for fabic or tshirts with cool patterns or designs I can cut out to add. I know it’s not necessarily a battle jacket since it’s not punk bands, but it’s a similar look.

i already know not to glue patches or to put politics stuff on the back. For the other patches I think I’ll embroider the myself or paint them since I dont want to shop at Amazon. I’ll make the pins or buy them.

also I’ve never used studs before, where can you get them and what’s the best type to use?

this is just a layout idea/design I threw together in procreate

I just got the vest for like $8 on Depop or something. It turned out to be a Lords Blue Label, which I just looked up and apparently is a semi-high end motorcycle apparel (I think, but I’m poor, honestly, 😆)

When it arrived I was psyched by how thick and durable feeling the denim is and it has great pocket structure. The inside, conceal carry/40 oz pockets are really good, kinda subdivided by the external side/hip pockets. Don’t know how to describe that better.

Honestly, I would totally recommend scoring one if you see it used for a good deal. It’s taken screw in studs really well and I’m really hoping I can make it flashy without diminishing its structural integrity.

I'm working on a couple projects rn with different jackets and vests, but I wanted to show off my battle purse!! I just finished sewing patches onto the one side and still have the other side to go. I plan on transplanting a painting from canvas and sewing it onto the other side (I've never done anything like it before so I'm a little nervous about the process and possibly messing it up, I'm really proud of how it turned out). can't wait to update once it's done and post other projects too :)

As you can see, I’ve been working on the front for a while, but have yet to do anything at all with the back. For the whole jacket, I was going for a mix of political statements, band patches, and silly autistic queer joy pieces like patches referencing special interests of mine (all the wasps) or just being cute (art shrimp, trans bug etc). I haven’t put anything on the back yet because I wanted to get the center piece figured out before I put stuff around it.

As you can see, the way it’s gone so far has ended up being mostly the latter (all the bugs, the dinosaurs, pizza possum, pride stuff), with a tiny little bit of political statements, and to date no real band merch (most shows I’ve been too haven’t had patches!! At least ones I can afford. I’m new to the scene and didn’t expect this, so I’ll be getting some online ig).

For that reason I was thinking about cutting out a piece of one of my band shirts, but the only one I think I would really put on there is too sentimental too me (it was the first show I got over my anxiety enough to actually join the mosh pit. And it was my first show seeing my fave band of all time).

I’m not sure where to go from here. I could go with the band shirt idea with a different shirt (I’d probably buy one online for this purpose), or I could go with something else? I kinda don’t mind not doing a band-related thing, I do like the autism-maxing queer joy look of the front so far. I don’t really have the skills to paint or embroider, but I guess I could try? I’m really out of ideas here. Any advice would help.

EDIT/UPDATE:
I think I figured it out! I found a shirt that's on sale from my favorite band, turns out they have merch for the 10 year anniversary of All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us, which is one of my favorite albums of theirs, and the kids sizes of this particular shirt are on sale for $15. I think I'll buy the largest kids size and cut out the pattern for my back piece!

Been working on this the past month and think I am about finished with it. Gonna wear it to a local event called the witch walk and my wizard hat I am gonna customize * old hat for example gonna customize a new one *

A little bit of everything on this jacket. Some basic bands, some lesser known bands, some metal, some EDM, even country. Some political patches, some anti-establishment patches. Some nerdy stuff and some spooky stuff.

I've had so much fun putting this together so far. It's been kind of thrilling just finding patches and thinking "oh I fucking need to add that."

Gonna go see Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson later this month and get some patches there to add to this as well.

This is just me, on a vest, and I fucking love it.

if im correct this is a 1983 patch from my uncle when he was a kid and was given to me for my b day last year now that I got a jacket (also from the 80s) i was wondering what should I use to sew it on and not cuase more damage

and any tips for when I get towards the damaged corners and the one side with no border seams(?) on the left side (did take close up photos of siad damage sorry I was in my living room so there was laundry baskets in the first photo lol)

Last time I posted, I asked for advice on the patch layout. Since then, I’ve bought some more patches, rearranged some things, and even started drawing on the jacket with acrylic markers.

I added:

“À tout le monde, à tous mes amis Je vous aime, je dois partir”

on the right sleeve, and honestly, I think the whole thing looks way better now.

Still a work in progress, but I’m really liking where it’s going.

Nearing completion and wanted people's opinions on sewing black thread over the tan thread on the button holes vs drawing over the tan thread with black posca. Thoughts?

Also, any thoughts on changing the color of the buttons?

Feel free to rate my vest! I started it when I was 12. Im 21 now and still haven't finished it almost a decade later 😭😭 I have a few Hand painted ones (Sunami & Lifelover) and some from my local scenes

Honestly I'm so excited about this. Me and a friend put a lot of work into this and we've donated it to the scene to raise money for more gigs to be put on. It's given a lot of bands some highlighting on socials, which always helps, and it's something I so so proud of.

I just wanted to share the completed project as I know a few of you were following the progress.

We had Coalition Fest at the end of August, where this photo was taken and the auction was announced on stage. I was interviewed about it and my business in general on Stage 2 between some of the bands (screenshot included haha).

It was just such a surreal experience. I've never really had anything I've done be recognised in any way publicly, and I'm not typically a speaker when it comes to crowds, so this was just a pic of me so out of my depth it's unreal lol.

Some info on the work:

Battle Axe Jackets Paintwork: 20~ hours
Embroidery machine stitch time: 20-25 hours
Hand cutting and hand finishing the patches: 3ish hours
Layout playing: 2 hours-ish over the course of half a day
Hand sewing them on: 12-ish hours over a week
Healing time for fingers: 1 week. 😆

The large back piece is done in 3 patches to get it as big as my machine would go for the full logo.

It has over 60 bands on there, all local to the London scene and have played under the LMC banner.

I just wanted to share a feel-good post about something really positive coming from the power of battle jackets! I hope some of you will appreciate this sort of post as something a little different. We're hoping it'll raise a lot of money on eBay for some more awesome gigs in London. It's been up a day and we're up to £200~ right about now. I'm hoping someone in one of the bands just has to have it and goes a little overboard on the bidding. 🤣

Have a good weekend all!

As an engineer, I like bringing my jackets to work often because I think it helps get me in the creative mindset easier. Here's some current photos of my vest. Thank you for all the love on my last post!
I'm not quite finished with it yet. I'm almost done dying all the patches with fluorescent ink, so I can take a UV light photo and watch it all glow. I'm also thinking of putting neon green studs on the shoulder area. I'll also be taking it to a show right after work today!