Spring’s Vest brings it’s own vibrant presence, with a Wheel of Fortune and a ticket to the Shit how. Lucky you.

With Winter being so elegant, still, and unnerving, Spring comes bounding around the corner with triple the number of patches and what feels like endless enthusiasm.

Spring is the first of two (followed by Summer) vest that has a tarot card as the right pocket designation, a “ticket” as the name plate on it, and a patch on the detachable hoodie cowl. It was a pattern that fell into place due to purchasing opportunities from Hot Topic and I capitalized on those options!

The overall theme is two fold – the onslaught of spring bursting through Winter’s hold, rife with possibilities, and just how many shows, movies, and cultural phenomenon build up a patchwork brand personality that makes us all up. These are all shows and/or movies I’ve watched that have become a part of my personality and ultimately, me. Some are cartoons, some are game shows, some are goofy live action shows, some are just simply off the wall entirely.

Both Spring and Fall were vest sets sold by Hot Topic as denim hoodies with removable sleeves and hood cowls. Spring and Fall are also the only two jacket/vests that have patches past the front pockets, which means I had to switch around the interior pockets on both to pull the patches off but they are not NEARLY challenging as putting the patches on front pockets – such a tight turn around but it’s so worth it when they get framed up so fricking well!!

I would be remiss to not directly acknowledge the madness that is Pickle Rick and naturally Button Eyed Coraline. Pickle Rick is actually a vinyl patch, one of the few in my collection. He came to me with a velcro backing, which I had to remove in order to stitch him to the jacket. I found other options on eBay but saw this listing and took a dive on it – so very, VERY glad I did! And naturally Coraline, which is one of my favorite Tim Burton pieces, very much belongs on this piece with all the complexities that she represents about found family and being your true self.

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And I know better to acknowledge Lord Vader in his Sugar Skull variant, as I do not wish to upset the Empire:

The back was rather tricky; especially the lower section. I actually started, moved, and readjusted the back multiple times to get spacing and color flow just right to bring it together. Some of the patches showed up later than the rest and naturally the MASSIVE White Lotus Pai Sho tile rather threw things into a challenge to get everything in the right place. I wasn’t planning on getting a White Lotus piece that big but it was a cost effective choice from a small production site on Esty (the 2″ version was only a dollar cheaper if I recall, which I get on a materials/labor view). Other than Pickle Rick and the White Lotus tile patch, everything else came from Hot Topic believe it or not!

Most of these patches I believe are going to be familiar with everyone or at least most folks but I will go through them in detail in case they are lost on anyone – I have no desire to be an elitist gatekeeper with pretentious dripping tones of, “What do you MEAN you don’t know what this means?” Good fuck, go get a light bulb and screw yourself man. Not me Fam, I will GLADLY tell you all the things! Shit should be shared, not held over someone’s head like an ass!

This is a vest/jacket that I will likely add things to in the future but for the time being, IT’S DONE. Of the four, this is the one with the most patches and was the most challenging to sort out. All the patches are different sizes and shapes but it’s so worth it! I hope you enjoyed viewing it as much as I did putting it together!!

Cheers!

Love, D.