Club Obi Wan

Got bold this evening and decided that I wanted to attempt to distress my jacket. I only did half of the jacket so you can see the difference. Let me honestly know what you guys think.


















-Doc

That's nice. It's quite subtle, but you've still done enough for it to look well-worn. You've done a great job, and it's excellent to have contrast pics like this. Hang onto them for future gearhead enquiries as to how you did it, what leather you have, how long it took, etc, etc

I like best how the shine is gone and along the seams. The distressing isn't obvious at all, subtle, it just looks well worn. Which is exactly how you want it, imho. Looks great.

More comments please.






-Doc

Not bad.

It could catch on.

Half-distressed, half-new.

For those who are wavering between screen-accurate and this-jacket-cost-me-two-hundred-bucks-for-Pete's-sake!

Also, you may have distressed it too much...the action pleats have disappeared.

But seriously...nice job on the distressing.

It would probably be better to use a finer grain of sand paper,
so no visible scratches show. Ive worn my jacket for a while,
and ive only ever put sand paper to the spots that were naturally
distressing to begin with. To bad there are no pleats. The button
cuffs are also a downfall. but its your personal prefrence.
Kindest Regards,
Adam

Hey Doc,
It is a good start, but listen to Adam. Some areas look great and some look very light, but there are visible scratches that look unnatural. I like the worn look around the pocket flap and the collar, but be wary of using straight strokes with the sandpaper (or whatever you used) as it becomes obvious looking. Refer to the picture of the upper back panel for the most obvious example of this.

It also looks as if you caught some "lining wrinkles" as well. Be certain that the lining beneath the jacket is completely smooth, or you will pick up these unintentional marks. The good news is that the distressing is so light, you can probably blend it using a 400-grit or even finer.

It is difficult to take any distressing medium to your new-looking jacket. The best way to approach it is a little at a time and very carefully. For example, only do the seam areas and leave it for a few days. Make sure the wear is not too uniform or it gets the pinstriped look. The heaviest wear should be directly on the seams (being very careful of the stitching!) and the distressing should blend into the jacket as you move away from the seams.

Once you have worn it for a while, be mindful of which areas would get distressed. If you make it too even, no matter how good it comes out, it will not look natural. That is why I never cared much for my pre-distressed jackets. When all is said and done, the best advice I can give is SLOW and LIGHTLY, but go easy on the strokes. You can always add to it, but it is darn near impossible to take it away.

See personally I like the lines the sandpaper made... because I believe that they would appear like that after say sliding down a mountian or being dragged behind a truck. The lining lines I wasn't to happy with but they happened so oh well. I will do the whole jacket but I only did half to show the difference between the brand new jacket and what I've done to it.



-Doc

Hey DIJ, coats looking good. Is that a slightly darker brown than the one I traded you?? If so, it's a big improvement over the old color.
The distressing seems to be coming along nicely.
Here are some pics of my distress job you could use for ideas.

http://public.fotki.com/IndyBlues612/wested_dark_brown/

I also posted about the process in this section, just take a look though the next few pages for a thread started by me.

Good luck, can't wait to see when it's finished.
'Blues

because I believe that they would appear like that after say sliding down a mountian

One time when i was camping i decided to go hiking in the surrounding woods. I ended up hiking on the edge of some sand dunes, about 60ft down, sloping at about 75 degrees. I tripped on a branch, triped, fell foward,rolled, then landed on my back,(back of my wested) and slid down the entire dune on the back of my jacket. I took it off afterword, and aside from a few dirt smears, it was unscathed. Sliding down a "large hill"
would not cause thoes scraches. on another note, i wear my wested
mostly every day to school, the inner walls are cinderblock basicly. I sit
up aginst the wall, scrape on the walls in the hallway, exe. A my Tod Cow has finally started to distress at the seams. There are some things you
should be thinking about when distressing the jacket.
1) distress what is logical.
If you dont lean on the center of your jacket dont distress the jacket there
,if you dont wear the collar unfolded (i wear it down myself, so do most all
people,its the correct way to wear it also) dont distress under the collar.
2)find spots that are distressing and sand thoes spots.
so distress it the way that you would be if it was being done naturally.
Kindest Regards,
Adam

Molorom wrote:on another note, i wear my wested
mostly every day to school, the inner walls are cinderblock basicly. I sit
up aginst the wall, scrape on the walls in the hallway, exe.

And you called me weird for the way I distressed my MKVII

Don't your teachers look at you and start to worry about the guy at the back of the room who rubs himself on the walls every class?

I dont do it on purpose, it just happens. Im walking in the hall and
get pushed into the wall exe. I dont rub my back on the wall...

Actually, they just ended up telling me it was getting too hot out for
the jacket, so now, when i go back to school soon, ill show up with
a cotton raiders on! what can they say now?

Adam

I think it looks perfect. Do the other side the same way and then wear th heck out of it and let nature do the rest.

I think it's shaping up to be a very nice distressed jacket - the only thing I would add is that the distressing looks a bit 'scratchy' in places at the front (the back looks good) - if it were my jacket, I'd be inclined to lightly pecard the jacket to 'smooth' the whole look out a bit after distressing the other side to match.

Post some pics of the finished jacket please!