#baddleasks

[baddlevests]

still around?

Still around! I've been flooded with work right before the summer and there's been minimal submissions but I've been backlogging some vests I stumble across.

I'll try to get something out this weekend. (":

[baddlevests]

Heyo, can you explain the last post you made? I didn't understand like any of it but you sounded so angry that i would like to know what it's about. cheers :)

Yes, sorry.

Someone followed (or, tried to, as I regularly go through the recent followers to make sure there's no 'phobes or fash, or minors etc) with an account explicitly made to promote and/or glorify their disordered eating and self harm behaviour. This is, to me, heinous. As both of those behaviours very often are taught to kids online especially in subculture circles. (Most notably way back in the MySpace days, I think with selfharm.)

A few years back there was a massive community on here glorifying and encouraging self harm, promoting it to vulnerable teens who might've otherwise never found out about the way you [disordered eating behavior that I refuse to talk about in detail for this exact reason] or self harm. The excuse always being that they just wanted "community" or needed to "vent". They'd target kids in the emo/scene community.

I'm really angry at the idea that it might be happening again. I do not think "pro-ana"/pro-selfharm/anti-recovery blogs are a healthy coping mechanism, especially not when you're getting involved with a community that is atleast 50% minors. You're directly exposing them to dangerous behaviours.

I fucking hate the glorification of disordered eating. I empathise with people who have EDs but you have no right to expose kids to it. I try not to get personal on here, but I have lost friends and almost lost lovers to ED and it's because of these godforsaken fuckers who continously promote it.

Keep it on a private side blog. It's literally in the bio, full of triggering keywords and essentially ED community dogwhistles. They could be following random people who's trying to recover.

Sorry, really trying not to boil over with anger, but it's really a pain. Stay safe out there.

[baddlevests]

My jacket fucks and is immune to criticism.

Unironically one of the sexiest jackets I've ever seen. Good amount of patches, perfect spacing (not cluttered but it doesn't look sterile) and it reeks of personality. I can IMMEDIATELY tell what type of music you like, and that you aren't a fascist without you having to put flashing lights on your jacket telling me so. Love the use of space on the sleeves and sides.

Studs on the collar gets an extra 10 points from me bc it's so underrated now adays lol. It looks great, love to see the mix of genres on there without you shitting all over the "culture". Machinegirl, ho99o9, zyanose, and dystopia is a top tier mix. Fuck. Yeah. Wish I could see more of this in my local scene!

I sound so pretentious but seriously this is an awesome jacket! What's the jacketbase? I can tell it's some army surplus, but can't really pinpoint which.

Also faggy dyke 🤝 dykey fag solidarity. Love to see it.

[baddlevests]

Okay, I gotta say your acrylic paint on t-shirt fabric before you start designing the patch advice is SO FUCKING GOOD. Before I was just using fabric straight from a old shirt and got good at just dealing with having to carefully paint on a design so it wasn't too messy. But, holy shit putting an acrylic base made it so much easier and gave the fabric so much more structure. I feel like a dumb ass for not doing it sooner lmao, but thanks so much for that advice!

Hey! That's awesome! If you're using tshirt fabric I can also give you the tip of trying to pin it down on some cardboard when you're painting the design, tshirt is so soft it likes to slip and slide. But I really recommend trying to get your hands on old denim instead, it's a bit more sturdy as it is! (If you have an old pair of jeans from when you were younger you can strip it for parts, you can drench blue denim in 1 part black acrylic+1 part water to turn it into an ashy black!)

So happy to be of help, feel free to send in photos in DMs if you want me to post them anonymously for you. :D

[baddlevests]

Some discourse over the past few weeks (and now finding this blog) has me paranoid about my vest? I’ve never really called myself a punk, but I am very much into darker alternative fashions. I bought a vest that was very obviously meant to be A Vest Onto Which You Attach Patches And Pins, but nothing I have on there is necessarily capital-p Punk. It’s just kind of a vest that I stick random stuff on. I have a lot of pride flags and pronouns on it, but it’s also got a few pop culture-y patches and pins (pokemon, cute cats, etc.). I can assure that everything came from indie artists, and I even made a few of the patches myself, although they’re all done by machine. I really like my vest but I don’t want to be Cringe™. Should I just find a better place for all of it?

Hi! I know what you mean, but at the end of the day it's your vest. You're gonna have to be proud of the stuff you're making. Like I've said previously punk's not a monolith, it's diverse - for good and for bad lol. I'd say, off the bat, that acknowledging that your non-punk vest isnt a Punk Vest™️makes a huge difference. There's a difference in being alternative, and claiming to be part of a specific subculture, youknow? It might even just be your "gateway" into finding what subculture you fit into best. It's not at all what social media makes it out to be. Pride and pop culture stuff is actually fairly standard even among capital P punks, if you know where to look. My local Pogos love to wear stuff with references to games and nostalgia bait. Old SNES games and TMNT are classics here. It's just about the balance and, for a lack of better wording, not being obnoxious with it. Which kids get a pass on, cause what kid isn't obnoxious? Even worse with baby punks, and I'm saying this with love. I was an obnoxious baby punk, hell I'm still really obnoxious if I'm gonna be real. Fuck it, be cringe, But own it! People will always have opinions, even if you try to fit the sterilized mold of what punk is. People always find something to complain about, especially other baby punks on instagram/tiktok/whatever. Superiority/inferiority complexes and shit. If you'd like more specific tips, like how to "declutter" the vest or something, feel free to DM me about it. :D This blog is, again, not made to put anyone off of doing DIY. The closest comparison I think all you kids will understand is that it's similar to when drag queens read eachother; I tell you your make up sucks out of love, lol.

[baddlevests]

Here’s my jacket, not finished yet but any constructive criticism is appreciated! Lots of the badges and the skull patch are re-used from whoever owned my bass before me :)

(The images aren’t working great for me, tell me if they’re wrong on your end)

Hey, hope its okay I answer this after the little spat we had (just saw it)

No rough housing in the replies or asks on this post y'all, we're not gonna bully someone who'd asking for input.

Here's a few tips on how I would improve on it (excuse the shitty editting)

First of all, I'd "clean up" the pins, and sort them in a designated space (both pocket and upper front panels work great for pin space!) and use the space left over from the pins for more band patches!

I'd try to get my hands on UK77 cone studs as they're sturdy, relatively easy to find, and not as expensive as high cones. High cones are heavy and tend to sag and rip on denim, and works best on heavy-duty fabric or leather jackets (faux leather too but it might tear easier). Square studs are classics on the collars (which I personally think looks better, but that might be a taste thing). I'd try to stud in panels as well, and avoid studding so sporadically, just for the sake of keeping it visually "clean" or for better spacing.

Centering the G.L.O.S.S patch on the back would immediately improve on spacing/readability, and maybe getting a lower back patch to fill out the space (maybe a round one, but square patches work great too) and then maybe something on the side panels.

Idk what the silver on the top back panel is, so it doesn't really read very well? But again that's maybe a taste thing, or because of photo quality. I think a band name patch would fit great there, with some studs around it maybe?

This is by no means a bad vest, especially not as a start or maybe "newbie" jacket. Mine looked WAY worse. It's got great potential and I think the planning is really good so far! Hope this helps in anyway, and doesn't come off as rude. Feel free to ask more questions if you want, and good luck!

Edit: I also don't know your age (which is fine!) so I don't really have a "reference point", or know what to expect, or know how hard I could/should be. If you're under 16 please for the love of god be easy on yourself.

[baddlevests]

Not an ask directed at you, but as someone who has had my mishaps with diy patches and had to learn through my own mistakes, I'm gonna give some tips for any baby punks out there trying to make diy patches.

Here's a tip for anyone with t-shirt/cotton fabric if you wanna make a patch that doesn't look like absolute shit (this was before I found some denim to but I still use this method on the denim i use to make patches). Get a thing of black fabric paint (it holds up way better than acrylic) and cover the fabric with a sponge brush and spread it over your fabric. Once it drys, you got a surface that'll hold the white fabric paint way better than the raw fabric.

Oh this tip rocks! This is exactly the type of tips I was hoping for

I recommend ironing any fabric paint for like atleast 5 minutes to "seal it" to the fabric as well! Also helps a lot. If you don't have a clothes iron, you can use a semi-hot saucepan (pot?)

Or getting fabric glue to set the tshirt material to a sturdier fabric (thrifting some ugly scrap curtains works great!) will give it a way longer life with minimal effort

Keep these tips coming :D

[baddlevests]

Ive never seen anyone say anything bad about scrap patches and i wanted to know whats wrong with them? Is it that they fray easily and arent likely to last long/just generally dont look as good on jackets? Are there other ways of making patches that you think are good? Ive really wanted to make my own jacket for a while but i cant buy many band patches and hate the way tshirt patches look

DIY patches rocks! It's just about the effort and commitment. Like we can very clearly tell who's actually tried when DIYing

Compare the patches below

One of these suck & is low effort. The others is by someone who clearly cares about the music, and is doing DIY with respect for the bands. Obviously noone is perfect, and it takes practise! But trial and error that shit.

Denim scraps works best if you don't have access to canvas (NOT the one you buy for painting on). Invest in textile paint or screenprinting ink and paint brushes, and practise copying logos. Start with easy stuff like Black Flags before attempring a black metal logo. You can make stencils too which definitely help.

If you dont really care that much, you can even "buy" posca pens and just draw directly onto the patch. It won't hold up as well but honestly I haven't noticed a major difference.

Feel free to send me a DM if you'd like to talk about it in more detail :) If anyone else has any tips leave them in the replies!