Great Thrift Store Find

Several years ago I was in a thrift store looking for a denim jacket.  I found one for me but I also found another one that was very well constructed but not in my size. I bought it anyway because it was a really nice jacket and I knew I would eventually find someone to give it to.

This month Janome is putting free embroidery designs on their website daily Monday thru Friday. One of their free designs was a skull.

Skull from Janome Website

I don't like skulls but this one appealed to me because of all the colors in it.  I thought this would look great on the back of this jacket.  I asked the recipient if she would like to have it stitched on her jacket and she yes.

How I Did It

I was a little nervous about stitching it directly on the jacket back because of the flat felled seam running down the middle of it.  I had embroidered on a similar jacket in the past so I decided to go for it.

It didn't work out so well.  I am not a digitizer but I have gotten pretty good at recognizing a well digitized design an IMHO this was not one of them.  The design digitizing is pretty good.  Anyway I decided to stop the stitch out directly on the jacket and do a patch instead.

When I tried to remove the stitches from the jacket it left a mess.  I could not get all the stitches removed from the outside of the jacket and the inside of the jacket was even worse (shown below).

Inside of Jacket After Stitch Removal

Inside of Jacket

In my mind I was thinking I had ruined a very nice jacket.  After I got over the initial panic I decide to do a patch to cover it up.

I found some scrap denim and stitched out the skull on it.  After stitching it out I cut it out leaving a 1/4" seam allowance around it.  I attached to the jacket back using a blanket stitch (see pictures below).

I liked how it turned out but I was not satisfied with the raw edges of the denim - I was concerned how the edges would look after a couple of washing.

I found some sparkly premier spangle yarn in my stash and decided to do some some free motion couching with it around the edge of the skull.  I used the article on Sew4Home website to give me some pointers on using my couching foot.  The instructions worked great for me.

Free Motion Couching with Spangle Yarn

I was so happy with how it turn out but I still had to deal with the mess on the inside.  I cut a bias piece of scrap denim and hand stitch it over the problem area.  Cutting it on the bias meant I didn't have to worry about the raw edges.  I decided to embellish the scrap first.

Bias Scrap Covering my Mess

Conclusion

I am so pleased with the way the jacket turned out.  In panic mode I almost tossed this jacket because I thought I had ruined it.  I am so glad I didn't give in to my momentary panic.  I hope the teenage recipient likes it as much as I do!