Bad Movie Battle Jacket

[Saucerman]

Hey folks, wanted to share a little craft project I've been puttering away on, ever since our own William Weird first inspired me with talk of building his own.  First, some background information, more or less copy-pasted from Wikipedia:

"Cut-off, also known as kutte or "battle jacket" in heavy metal subcultures. A type of vest or jacket which originated in the biker subculture and has now found popularity in the punk and various heavy metal subcultures. Biker, metal and punk subcultures differ in how the garment itself is prepared, what decorations are applied, and how this is done.

Cut-offs are usually made from leather or denim jackets with their sleeves removed, or cut very short, and often adorned with patches, badges and painted artwork that display motorcycle club affiliations known as colors, band names, political affiliations, beliefs and deviant sexual activities committed.

The word "kutte" (plural: kutten) is a loanword from the German term. This references both the cut-off sleeves as well as, tongue-in-cheek, the religious habit of a Christian monk (also called Kutte in German)."

I decided it'd be cool to adapt the Battle Jacket for my own subculture, i.e., B-movie nerd-dom.  I found sites offering iron-on and canvas patches as well as buttons, got myself a denim vest and set to work.  While it's still very much a work in progress, I thought I'd share some of the most up-to-date pics of the garment.


Front view.  Half-hidden on the sides are BASKET CASE and TARANTULA patches. 


Upper Right Front


Upper Left Front


I am a man who knows what he wants and how to demand it.


Rumpled image of the back patch(es).  "You think this is a f***ing costume? This is a way of life!"

[Flick James]

Looks good. I had a battle jacket going to high school in the mid 80's. Mine was decorated not with patches, but with artwork drawn on it with permanent ink, some of it done by me, and some done by a friend who was a better artist. Artwork representing various bands we liked and whose shows we frequented back in the infancy of hardcore metal and crossover punk: Slayer, Exodus, Voi Vod, Celtic Frost, D.R.I, Corrosion of Conformity, Dark Angel, Hirax, and many others. I saw Slayer and D.R.I. play together in 1985, before D.R.I. had crossed over and they were still punk. The crowd was half long-haired thrash heads and half punks. What a raucous pit. One of the best shows of my younger days.

[SkullBat308]

Nice, that is looking good, my friend also has that "more Brains!" patch on his battle jacket. I like it!

[Hammock Rider]

That's pretty cool! I want one!

[JaseSF]

Cool!!! I'd love to have one like that. Of course, being straight-edge, I already wear lots of buttons and badges now on practically all my coats and caps. I do have some Horror related ones too though including ones of Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Boris Karloff as Frankenstein, Boris Karloff as the Mummy (which with his arms crossed into an "X" I've been known to wear with my straight-egde XXX buttons).

[aaachuemm]

wow, they look very cool .