This is a lightweight jacket (almost a longsleeved shirt, but with a zipper up the front, which makes it feel more jackety) that I bought at my favorite boutique, Value World. (For those who don't know, Value World/Village is a pretty low-scale resale store. But it's a GREAT place to start a project, because the money investment is so low.) I was going to a "Geek Fan Expo," and wanted something unique to wear. (Common theme, yes.) I started by thinking "what geeky thing am I a fan of?" Mystery Science Theater 3000 is my all-time favorite TV show, and inside of that show, the Gamera episodes are some of my favorites, sooooooo...
The plan was to have Joel and the bots in silhouette across the bottom of the jacket, watching Gamera. I started by seeking a Gamera image that I liked. After looking at many MANY movie stills, I found this awesome illustration, which did not have a creator attached. I wish I could find out who did it, because it's awesome, and the same artist did several other fantastic kaiju illustrations.
I printed this on white cotton using my Epson inkjet with DuraBrite ink. Printing with this ink doesn't require the fabric to be pretreated in any way. It prints great and HOLDS color remarkably well, even through washing. (Not that I'll wash this jacket, but I did rinse the print after letting it sit for a day or two, and running a hot iron over it, just to make sure it wouldn't smudge.)
I positioned it on the back of the jacket, and then free-motion stitched a rough outline of the beastie's shape, going over it a few times. Then I carefully trimmed the excess print away, to give it a cooler look.
I felt like the sky needed something, so I repeated the process with the MST3K planet logo (the Satellite of Love wouldn't quit fit the layout).
For Joel and the bots, I traced a vector version of them in the theater seats, and used that to cut the shape out of felt with my Silhouette Portrait cutter, after adhering heat-n-bond to the back of the felt. This is important for two reasons: felt needs stabilization to be cut with the Silhouette. Further, stitching around the complex shapes to attach it to the jacket would have been paaaaaaaaiiiinful, so this was a preferable option.
That's pretty much it! Print-stitch-trim Gamera, print-stitch-trim MST3K loto, cut-iron-on theater silhouettes, and you get...THIS.
Yeah, it's not a great picture. But every other time I think about taking a better picture, I'm already wearing it. I wear it fairly often, usually to great response. There are more MiSTies out there than you think!
