Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Jean Jacket to Jean Vest DIY


Hey guys! I'm back with a DIY for you all to try. Below is how I transformed an H&M jean jacket I found in a thrift store to a badass vest. Enjoy.

What you'll need:



  1. A Jean Jacket (duh!)
  2. A pair of scissors
  3. A black piece of fabric (I used a solid black bandana I found at AC Moore for less than 2 bucks)
  4. Fabric chalk (regular chalk works if you haven't got any fabric chalk around)
  5. Fabric pins and a needle and thread (thread color of your choice)
  6. A stencil of whichever design you want (I made mine). You can find the image I used here.
  7. Fabric Paint (I used the Tulip Brand in Glacier White)
  8. A sponge brush (any will do)
  9. A small paintbrush for touch-ups (optional)
Let's begin:

Step 1: Start with your jean jacket, and turn it inside out. Cut along the arm seams to remove the sleeves. It should look like this when you're through:


Step 2: If you can't eyeball how much fabric you'll need, place the cloth over the back of the jacket. Make sure the fabric is ironed so there are no wrinkles. You should be able to feel the "grooves" of the jacket (basically the square frame on the back where your fabric will go). Using your fabric chalk, trace along those grooves so you know how much to cut.

Once you've done that, you can cut it out! Tip: Cut at least a few centimeters from the outline just in case your tracing wasn't accurate.

Also, don't worry about the chalk outline as you're going to use the opposite side.

Step 3: Use the pins to secure the fabric to the jacket while you sew, and then hand-sew it on. It should look like this:


Step 4: Grab your stencil and sponge brush, and paint your image onto the fabric. My anatomically correct heart came out like this:


Take this time for touch-ups. Here's the final product:


Step 5: Embellish as you like! I should be ordering some studs online soon, but I'll manage with some safety pins and band buttons in the meantime.

Take Away The Ugly is a punk rock band in the NY/NJ/PA area. Check out their website and listen to their music by clicking on the highlighted links.


That's it!

 Hope you enjoyed the DIY, and feel free to leave a comment and pictures of your own Vest DIYs.


1 comment:

  1. I love this, I did the same thing with a Polo jacket I thrifted a couple months ago!

    ReplyDelete