DIYing the Floral Leather Jacket of my Dreams

Hello hello, isn't this different? 

For years, since 2016, to be exact, I have loved the painted Gucci floral leather jacket, and I have been endlessly inspired by it's feminine yet hard aesthetic. If you were to look up the name Katie in a dictionary, I'm not sure that you wouldn't see a picture of that jacket. But, I don't have $10,000 for a jacket, and they never made it in a size I could wear.

So, what do you do, besides taking it upon yourself to make it?

I'm not trying to replicate or dupe the original jacket, as I don't have the quality of products that Gucci has available to them, and considering their jacket is painted and embroidered, while mine will be with patches and paint. But, that means I'm able to make it uniquely my own!

I bought a faux leather moto jacket off of Poshmark and it already had some floral details on it, which was nice to begin with, and I bought patches off of Amazon. The patches are of flowers, bees, and a snake, because those were the motifs I liked on the jacket. I then used craft acrylic paint to paint impressionist flowers and vines. The jacket I bought was already inspired by the Gucci jacket, so, the print om it was a great background to build off of and to fill in space. I mapped out the patches first, took photos of the placement, and then I painted the flowers before stitching the patches on.

The patches were the worst part, because hand sewing through faux leather and not trying to catch the lining while also trying to catch the sides of the patch were less than fun times. I definitely drove a the blunt end of a sewing needle under my finger nail free edge and into the nail bed more than once during this. It also doesn't help that most of the readily available patches on the internet are iron on, with a thick iron on glue backing, and you cannot iron faux leather, as the jacket will melt and distort before the glue melts and sets on the patch. So, I stitched them on, which was the better and more accessible option, as I already had needles and thread. 

I know this is different than my usual outfit or styling posts, but this jacket means a lot to me, because the original has been a mainstay in my Pinterest board for years, and I love it. 

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