Crazy Hat Band Wings

[a2jacketpatches]

A long time customer contacted me a couple of weeks ago with the idea and this first picture. He said "just improve on the idea and have fun with it" and suggested Macaw. So I based the color scheme from top to bottom ( 2nd photo ) and left to right ( 3rd photo ) on the Scarlet, Blue & Gold, and military Macaw. There's an internal stiffener within each wing and i'm making the elastic fabric band that secures this band to the hat. It'll attach to the button loops at the back of each with. If you look closely at the photos you can just barely see the loop. He has since ordered one in a Hawk color scheme and the red Cardinal

[tyecop15]

What dye did you use to achieve those colors. Looks amazing.

[a2jacketpatches]

Flea market leather jackets. If I can get them for 5 - 10 bucks, it's better than 50- for a hide anywhere else. I make jacket patches for the most part so the small cut up sections are fine most of the time. Really increases the profit margin. Just grabbed a super deep red leather jacket yesterday for ten bucks to do Cardinal wings, cut it up, soaked and washed in hot water, then dried.

Edited January 7, 2015 by a2jacketpatches

[builderofstuff]

Very cool!

Chris

[Wild Bill46]

I don't think I had ever seen anything quite like these,

And for a song at the flea market too ! Who would have guessed ?

I would think this is a good niche to have found ?

I would very much like to see more of this type of head cover .

Thier very, very nicely done !----- Wild Bill46

[a2jacketpatches]

I buy and sell antiques and vintage military items so I'm at the flea market bird early every Saturday and Sunday morning. The 80's bright colored leather jacket are way out of style and abundantly cheap because they've usually been sitting in the peddlers inventory for a while already. When the price is high because it's new to them I always say

" Well, if you don't get your asking price after a while I buy them for scrap at 10 bucks"

Re-purposed leather jackets account for at least half of my materials and are perfectly thin for my layered leather patches. This wing thing is essentially the same construction process. Here's a patch to see what I mean.

.

[Wild Bill46]

Again, very unique niche, Is this indian head from the motorcycle genre ?

I can't see how you get those colors together soooo uniformly ? great work ! ---- Wild Bill46

[MonicaJacobson]

Those hat bands are pretty sweet! I don't think I could deal with such tiny pieces.

[a2jacketpatches]

Yep, Indian Motorcycles.

I've got a special top secret pattern making process that makes it a breeze to lay out the designs on the leather. It's a little tricky cutting out the parts at times but a nice pair of detail scissors and multiple filigree shape punches help with that. I use up Netflix shows to pass the time,

[TJP]

I like your patches! Great idea on flea market leather jackets!

[a2jacketpatches]

Couple more and now he wants bat wings.

[MonicaJacobson]

I like the eagle wings even better. Or hawk wings?

[a2jacketpatches]

Yes, Hawk wings. This guy got me on a roll, living in Vegas got me thinking to do some cards hands fanned out or a pair of dice in place of the wings. A friend of mine across town wanted me to come up with some civilian ideas as opposed to my usual military insignia. He's already got the website set up. Also wanted to come up with a guy type bag, something Indiana Jones would carry. Very inspired by your outstanding work, I took a look and love that large satchel. How would you recommend I start a project like that? Never done a bag or anything like it.

[hobbihorse]

Love your detailed work! Would enjoy seeing more of your pics.

Hobbihorse

[MonicaJacobson]

Thanks, A2 - I think you'd have no trouble making bags. All that tiny work and attention to details that you normally do, you'd find bag making a breeze. I guess the kind of bag you'd make would depend on if you hand sew or machine sew, but the hardest part for me was making the monetary commitment to buy the leather needed for a large bag. Basically, if you buy decent leather and stay generic with your shape, you'll make two or three times what you spend on the leather. At base price. It'd be cool to offer a range of patches to go with it. Your Indiana Jones idea sounds like it would be awesome, people love rustic.

[a2jacketpatches]

I sell and trade my patches to a few top jacket makers. These guys are making exact reproductions of the A-2 Flight Jacket of WW2 among others and they are in the1000- 1600- price range. They have gone so far as to buy up all old stock of zippers, hardware, etc. from the 1940's and there's even reproductions made of that stuff. They've had the finest of leather specially tanned for these jackets as well and send me an endless supply of their leftovers. 3-4oz Horse Hide in russet and seal brown is what I usually get in trade for patches or something along with some very nice heavy goat skins. There's usually a full hide or two in the pile with large matching scraps for each that would certainly cover a bag once in a while. My idea was to add features to a bag that resemble the jackets.

No hand stitching for me, I use modified old Singers, the older black heavy steel ones. I tear them down to the basic machine use a heavy duty needle and a pile of old embroidery thread from the 40's that I bought at an estate sale about ten years ago. Nice, still very strong, countless colors, for ten bucks. Ten years later looking at it tells me I've got another twenty years worth. I do buy new leather and supplies but always looking to re-source just about anything I can.

Here's one of the jacket makers located in the UK that I've been providing the patches for about three years, if you click on the jacket close-ups will pop up.

http://www.eastmanleather.com/product_info.php?products_id=233

[MonicaJacobson]

Man, those are sweet. I wish I could afford to get one for my husband. It seems like you have a market ready and waiting for you. You know those guys, they know how good your work is, if you could use the leather they trade you to make some bags that actually look like old military gear with patches to go with the jackets, you've got it made. Hey, if you're going to spend 1600 on a jacket, you might just want a matching bag to go with it.

[5 Spice]

Beautiful work.

[alfher]

Nice looking patches, you do a great job.