Vest advice

[Boicie]

I want to start a large project, I want to make a vest that emulates a biker vest but has my school logo on the back, I'm a teacher. I also want to have a number of smaller logos on the front of areas that I teach and clubs I am a part of for school.

I have made material vests before so I am comfortable with making the pattern and think I can tackle a lot of the simple problems of sticthing etc, but its the actual tooling side I am getting a bit caught up on as I haven't done much of that and am uncertain how to approach it.

My mind says to simply tool the back as one piece and do smaller things on the front but that, obviously, means I can't add to it later. I am worried that if I tool a patch and stitch it on, it will be too much weight.

I plan on paiting the tooled areas but just want to get my head into how this will work.

Anyone tried this sort of thing? Advice?

I should add that I've gone full leather for the experience as I've got a heap of cheap stuff that's been sitting rolled up for too long

[Wizcrafts]

I am a professional patch sewer. Bikers bring or ship their vests to me and include embroidered patches they want me to sew on, along with a photo of the patches in place, or by taping or pinning them in place. They have their patches sewn at embroidery shops. Have you considered simply working with an embroiderer to have your designs digitized, then sewn onto a leather vest? Yes, the patches will cost actual money. But, those designs can be stored and repeated if others want a similar patch job.

If you really want to hand tool a vest, you'll need to construct it of vegetable tanned carving leather, about 4-5 ounces thick. Make sure you don't carve the lines so deeply that they get perforated and separate under use. If you cut too deeply, the vest will be ruined. I recommend carving the patches on 4-5 ounce leather panels, then use double-sided tape to hold them in place and have them sewn on by an upholstery shop that has walking foot sewing machines. Note, if you intend to place any patches over pockets, it takes a special "patcher" machine to sew them on without closing up your pockets. These patchers are usually found in shoe repair shops. Many professional leather crafeters own patchers and walking foot machines.

[dikman]

If you're talking about actually carving your logo into the back of a vest you might be in trouble. Not only that the leather probably won't be thick enough to carve but being flexible is likely to cause issues, most carving is usually done on thicker leather that ends up being fairly rigid. If you carve it into a thicker piece to sew onto the vest it might be a bit uncomfortable to wear.

[Doc Reaper]

Boicie I too own a bikers leather shop. I have from one to an entire group come into my shop for placement of patches.

My advice would be to purchase a vest (buy a slightly larger vest if you plan on wearing a hoodie under it - most do) and add patches to it. You can have them made out of embroidered fabrics which is costly to make just a single patch OR you can purchase some veg tan leather (3 to 5 ounce thicknesses) and tool your own. It won't be as heavy as you think and it will be unique. Just draw up a design and enjoy you first few steps into leather tooling. If you need to contact me I'm at  docreaper@rocketmail.com 

you being in Australia it should be easy to find others that tool Leather, enjoy!

Edited August 10, 2023 by Doc Reaper

[airplaneguy]

Boicie,

I just bought a new embroidery machine to make patches . I would be willing to do the patches for you at a greatly reduced rate. 

[Burkhardt]

2 hours ago, airplaneguy said:

Boicie,

I just bought a new embroidery machine to make patches . I would be willing to do the patches for you at a greatly reduced rate. 

Tag him @Boicie so they get a notification.