Club Obi Wan

Been distressing my jacket again lately - progress has been slow, but now my Wested authentic lamb is beginning to look like I want it to.



The jacket begun as a sz 48 Temple... after a few bouts in the tumble dryer it's more of a Raiders now, as far as length is concerned. Tumbling did reduce the bagginess though, which was the main mission objective... I ordered it with not that many specs - single-piece underarm gussets, black anodized sliders, cotton body, satin sleeve lining.

One thing I wanted to achieve was the ToD "accordion sleeves", best seen in the end scenes. Just as VP pointed out in an old thread, those sleeves look übercool and I wanted to emulate that look on my jacket. So, I took a couple of showers wearing the jacket (oh, like you never wanted to), pulled the sleeves up above the elbows, Miami Vice-style and let dry. Rinse and repeat. My sleeve wrinkles are not as obvious as Indy's - yet - and don't really show unless I wear the jacket. You can see the wrinkle lines on the pics though.



I'm still a bit puzzled over how I'll manage to wrinkle the sleeves above the elbow, but I'll think of something.



As for the distressing job itself - it's the run-of-the-mill acetone and sandpaper deal. Acetone rubbing was made a couple of years ago, the rest's been light (oh well) sanding and tossing the jacket around. Oh, and the tumble dryer rides - two of them - also removed the "new jacket"-sheen.



A closeup of the collar/shoulder region. Collar was prepped with acetone and later topically sanded for the deeper highlights and scratches. Shoulder is roughed up with a medium/fine grit 3M abrasive sheet. I prefer the 3M sponges and pads over sand paper - not as much hard abrasion and I have more control of the process.



So far, I have gone topical on the scratches - when finished, it's supposed to resemble the ToD jacket more than anything else, but I haven't really bothered with screencaps that much yet - first, I need to get the surface of the leather in the shape I want it before any artsy stuff. Still need to move a lot of dye on the front, so I guess I'll break out the acetone again soon... funny thing is, that while the front left side of the jacket is very easily distressed, the dye on the right side is really hard to get rid of - need to apply most of the elbow grease there.

So far, so good. To be continued...

I got an idea for the sleeves, above the elbow. Wet the sleeves again, soak them through. Take a piece of PVC pipe, or something similar, and put it thru the sleeve, making sure the pipe is big enough to simulate an arm. Push the sleeve up, all nice and wrinkly, as far as it will go up the pipe. Secure the sleeve in this position(not sure how yet, it's early. Can't believe I thought of this on a whim, lol), and let it dry.
Viola', instant TOD sleeves.
BOOYAA!!
'Blues

Hey, that's actually a good idea 'Blues! The upper sleeves are kinda difficult to pull all the way up while wearing the jacket, so I might just give the pipe method a go... guess one could use rubber bands or similar to secure the sleeves.

Cheers!

The distressing looks great in that pictures! How do you like your jacket in sunlight?

IndyBlues wrote:Viola'

Voilà.

BreinederIndy wrote:The distressing looks great in that pictures! How do you like your jacket in sunlight?

Thanks!

In direct sunlight, the highlights do wash out a bit. But the tormented texture of the leather shows even better.

Hmm, are those pics distorted? It looks like the chest measurement is like 58 and the waist is something around 36. Also the pockets look much smaller than in previous pics.

Haven't seen many pics of you wearing any of your stuff lately BTW, except the avatar.

That's a great looking jacket SJ! ..V.P,what does BTW mean?(I keep reading it,just curious)

Yep, the pics are upside down. Couldn't take them with the sun in my back, lest the jacket would've been shadowed.

The pics of me wearing gear rests silently on a failed hard drive in my drawer, together with heaps of Indy and SW reference material. Will salvage it some day...
As for my present gear, I'm working on it. Pics will be posted, gentlemen!

mark seven wrote:That's a great looking jacket SJ! ..V.P,what does BTW mean?(I keep reading it,just curious)

Thanks, mark seven! It stands for By The Way, BTW.

Great job on the wheathering. Nice touch with the acetone. Not overly done, IMHO.

I may need to break down and actually take pics of my jacket. I've gotten caught in the rain a few times wearing it and so far am pleased by the wear and tear it's recieving. It's a very slow process so I may break down and let some sandpaper land on it. My sleeves are realy getting that accordion look mentioned and love how easy it is to move in it now. Keep up the good work.

The jacket looks really good...not over done, yet still looking like its seen a few adventures. Nice job.

ULTRA cool looking jacket my friend!
It's been a while since I showered with mine... Better do it before it starts to freeze outside.

It's hard to imagine, but I bet it looks even better IRL than it did the last time I saw it now that you've groomed and shampooed it. (Lather, rinse and repeat?)

Very ToD, to my likeness.

High regards,
Swindiana

Thanks for you kind words and excellent opinions, guys!

Yeah, I've been going very slow and easy on the distressing, which - apart from stopping me from overdoing it - also lets the distressing relax and age together with the jacket. While this may sound a bit New Age-y, truth is that the earliest distressing - seams and pockets - were kind of brownish gray (much like the seaplane fedora AH! HA! HA! HA! I'm so funny...) to begin with. Now, nearly three years later, these parts have turned into a kind of tan with just a hint of red... very nice and kinda screen-accurate-esque, IMO.

Sanding and rubbing acetone on a leather jacket - no matter what Michaelson says - is, well, kinda abusive to the garment ... taking one's time when distressing is a way to give the jacket a break and get adjusted to the process.

Eile mit weile, as the Germans say...

Looking good mate.

I have a vintage 60's cafe racer jacket and the sleeves on that pretty much crease in the way Indy's do in the pics above - it's not so noticable in this pic but you get the general idea:



Something about the vintage leather just seems to want to crease and take on a lot of character..it's surely a very hard thing to emulate in a new leather jacket, but you've done a brilliant job so far!

Best regards my friend,

Al

ob1al wrote:it's not so noticable in this pic but you get the general idea:

No I dont.

So why comment VP?

Look harder.

Further to the above, I was merely trying to comment that naturally distressed older leathers take on an appearance which is full of character and uniqueness.

Did you ever get that feeling of 'why did I bother posting here...?'

VP wrote:

IndyBlues wrote:Viola'

Voilà.

What's your problem with the Viola, VP



I happen to like Viola
'Blues

IndyBlues wrote:

VP wrote:

IndyBlues wrote:Viola'

Voilà.

What's your problem with the Viola, VP



I happen to like Viola
'Blues

Hey I played the Viola in school..Loved it Sorry back on topic


Cheers,
Jeff

Beautiful! I've always liked the look of the Temple O' Doom jacket...it looks more "naturally" aged as compared to the Last Crusade jacket. Well done!
Kindest Regards,
Captain D

Nice, but I think the reason why wrinkles aren't setting on the upper arm is because the sleeve is not as slim as it was on HF's jacket.

Look at how low the bottom of your armhole is. That extra leather is preventing folds or wrinkles from folding.

i think milesfides is right. the wrinkles on indy's jacket rely heavily on the taper and length of the sleeve....this is also evident in the peru map scene where indy is reading the map in front of the waterfalls and you will notice that there is no sleeve ride up (i.e. fully bent arm and there are still wrinkles and the cuff is still just below the thumb's first knuckle...where it should be when the arms are in the prone position).

i also have a leather lamb shirt/jacket that drapes with the sleeves in that maner primarily because of the taper and extra length.

i am currently waiting on my second wested in which i specifically requested and 80's cut and tapered sleeves with an aditional 1.5" added to the length. i hope to achieve the wrinkles. i'll post pics if i'm right (and eat crow if i'm wrong ).

regardless of that, thats one #### of a nice distressing job!

I think you guys are absolutely right about the sleeves. taper and length, combined with wear & tear is what makes the look. My Wested has "modern" fit and single underarm gussets, which makes the sleeves considerably wider at the top. Great when wearing heavier sweaters in winter, a bit more problematic when trying to emulate an "80's fit" movie costume look.

ob1al wrote:naturally distressed older leathers take on an appearance which is full of character and uniqueness.

Exactly! This, IMO, is the greatest challenge when artificially distressing a leather garment. One wants to capture not only the wear, but the character. I believe "easy does it" might be the key to this... As Captain D pointed out, the ageing of the LC jacket is way different compared to ROTLA and ToD - the LC is more of a speed distress job, way too rough and mechanically done. Off-screen photos shows this very clearly.



What about the Viola da Gamba, VP?

Violas are okay, it's the Viola's that tick me off.

So? Get even. For instance, start using the catch-phrase "hey, presto", but spell it "pretso"... that'll teach'em!

I just saw your jacket pics. I really like the uneven distress marks on the back of the jacket. I think it looks much more realistic than the usual parallel scratches that are so often seen on artificial distress jobs.

Not bad on the D-job. I would maybe smooth out the random marks on the back panel, blend them in a bit, but that's just me.

FYI, if you want to see some awesome looking "vintage" jackets with great looking wear, go rent The Right Stuff. Lots of guys hanging out in A-2's. Yeager's jacket is awesome. I would take some of those wear patterns and try to emulate them (if I was going to distress a jacket).

sorry to go off topic here, but in regards to the picture of indy above....when did he hurt his hand? i believe he had a wrap around it when he got his shirt back on but he managed to knock the thugee guy 10 feet back with a bandaged hand. i'm just curious............

I think that happened during the fight after Shorty "woke him up" from the "sleep". I think Chatter Lal cut his palm with a knife, if I'm not mistaken. Then he just wrapped a piece of cloth around it for a quick bandage.
'Blues

thanks blues, i think i recall seeing that.

Yup, Indyblues nailed it -- It was Chattar Lal in the Temple with the knife...sort of sounds like a game of CLUE, doesn't it? You'll notice that from this scene til the end of the film, Indy's hand has that bandage on it.

~Jace