We decided to use the new trend for all things jazzy to DIY our old faithful denim jacket. We it, but after summer (the whole 3 days of it!) it sits back in the cupboard waiting until the sun shines next year. But with the help of pins, patches badges and brooches, it’ll be accompanying us to our Xmas party this year.
You’ll need:
A denim jacket in need of a re-vamp.
We found ours in a charity shop for £3…bargain central!
If you are in need of some denim to DIY, we love this jacket by Glamorous at Topshop){href='/wp-admin/(http:/www.topshop.com/en/tsuk/product/clothing-427/denim-4889473/denim-jackets-900/denim-jacket-by-glamorous-4699632?bi=20&ps=20)' }. The amount of ‘jazz’ on your jacket is really up to you. We started with a ‘base’ black sequin trim and added from there, but you can add as little or as much as you like.
Black Sequin trim
10 metres for £1.39, god love you eBay!
Badges
We used our secret stash of badges we’d collected over the years, from gigs and travels. Check out Monki, Asos, and even the Tate Modern for a fab selection. If you’re a DIY magpie like us, start keeping an eye out at local markets, galleries and events, you’ll start seeing badges everywhere!
Seriously cool badge and patch crafter Trudi Lang was kind enough to send us some of her rad patches for our DIY. Trudi, from Glasgow, runs Half Stitch, her pieces are cool, current, and have feminist message. Faves include ‘Hot Mess’ ‘Riots not diets’ and ‘Support Your Local Girl Gang’. We think these were made with us in mind.
Brooches
We got these brooches in a charity shop for 50p each, seriously, your local shop is worth a look, it can be an Aladdin’s cave of bargains. If treasure hunts just aren’t your thing, you can get some great brooches on ASOS we got this pearl number and this moon and star pin for our jacket.
Patches
We used the below patches for our jacket:
Car patch, (ours was our own from a thrift shop, but you can find similar ones on Ebay)
Last but not least, you'll need some strong glue, scissors, an iron and a tea towel
How to
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Lay your jacket out flat on a work surface.
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Most denim jackets have at least a couple of seam lines, pockets and hems, have a look at your jacket and work out where your sequin trim to be placed.
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As we wanted maximum bling, we wanted our sequins along the bottom seam, up the middle seams of the jacket, around the collar and covering the full pockets.
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We made a line along the bottom seam with our glue and placed the sequin trim all the way along, we also went around to the back, not all the way, but until we hit the next seam.
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When you finish a line, leave a few sequins before you cut off the trim, we can go back and ensure the last sequin is glued later.
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Press the trim down lightly into the glue. The glue is extra strong, so it won’t be going anywhere, but if you like you can go over the sequins with thread to sew them into the jacket.
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Repeat this on the edges of the opposite seam, and again down the middle seams of the jacket and along the collar, gluing the trim in place.
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When it comes to the pockets, we first glued around the edges, and down the two middle seams. Then to fill in the entire pocket with our trim, simply glued and cut (remember, leave a few sequins at the edge of your cut off trim) lines of sequins until we had completed covered the pockets.
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Next, have a play around with where you would like your badges, pins patches, pearls, and brooches to go!
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We would suggest trying the jacket on, as embellishments on the sleeve will look in a different position when the jacket is worn.
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We started by ironing on our patches, follow the instructions that come with your patches, ours were to set our iron to a medium heat with no steam, and covering the patch with a tea towel, press down with the iron for 20 seconds and check if the patch is stuck firmly, if not hold down for a further 10 seconds.
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Next, we added safety pins at random points on our jacket front and sleeves. We then added our badges and brooches.
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We then added our pearls in any empty spaces on the jacket (we bet there won’t be many at this stage!) until we were happy with the final result.
Done! You’ll be looking fresh to death in this jacket. Don’t let anyone dull your sparkle (you should definitely Instagram that.)
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Follow Jenny on Twitter: @jennybrownlees
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.