How to customise leather jackets

by Ruth Balfe

Crafting tips - how to paint leather jackets with spray paint or acrylic, paint stencils on jackets, and how to customise them with studs and spikes. Sweet.

It's likely you will be in possession of a black leather jacket. For a long time a staple ‘statement’ garment, we embrace their tough and rebellious image. However, they've seeped into the mainstream and are now seen on everyone from metalheads to airheads. How to make your leather jacket echo your unique personality and stand head and leather-clad shoulders above the crowd?

Painting on jackets was popular in the late 1970s punk movement, when they were plastered in band names and studs. That's arguably where leather jacket customisation got its roots (and, obviously, the Hell's Angels had much to do with it, as they painted their chapter's insignia onto their leather jackets for all the world to see - and tremble at - as they rode). You can customise leather jackets in more ways than sticking to band names and studs, so let's look at a few methods that might reflect your interests, artistic capabilities, imagination and style.

How to paint a leather jacket - the all-over paint job

• Spray paint (all health and safety precautions to be taken)
• Acrylic paints - there are some made specifically for painting on leather
• Leather dyes
• I just used plain old poster paint, the kind you finger painted with at nursery. The only problem is that it gives a matte finish, and over a long time will wear faster than acrylic.

Colour is the new black! Paint the whole jacket in a bright colour like red, purple, yellow, green, or even rainbow colours! On a black jacket, for a really bright colour apply a coat of white first, without this the colour will be more muted. For a scruffy, grungy look leave parts of the original colour exposed to give it a worn-out look. If your not quite sure you want the whole jacket painted, try painting just a few bits, on a black jacket, purple or red cuffs or shoulders fading into black would look great, or just paint a few sections. Maybe try metallic paint, silver, metallic black, blue, green......or even better, sparkly!

How to paint leather jackets with stencils / art details

Rather than (or as well as) fully painting your jacket you can customise it with detailed designs. If you are artistically gifted, great - let your imagination run wild like a proud horse on the savannah, and set to work creating a wearable work of art. If you are, err... not so much gifted as enthusiastic, there are simpler ways to customise leather jackets than by freehand artistry. For instance:

• Tattoo designs can be copied
• Band names and lyrics can be scrawled on the back, the sleeve, the lining or all over.
• Graffiti stencils can be used
• Abstract graffiti using a few cans of spray paint.

How to hand paint stencils onto jackets

For painting stencils or design details, you can use the paints listed above. You can also use Tippex. If you're writing words, white is a good contrasting colour, and tippex is easy to write with and very cheap. And it's nodding back to the punk heritage.

To hand paint a stencil, you can simply tape your stencil design into place on the leather jacket and carefully paint into it - it helps if the stencil's on a thick bit of cardboard and if the stencil design itself has clean, defined edges.

Here's a handy alternate method for transferring stencils from paper to jacket:

Online art stencils & tutorials

Do you know how to make stencils? If so, these handy resources offer free stencils for you to download, and also plenty of stencil tutorials. We like this one about how to create stencils in photoshop.

• Alice in Wonderland stencil
• Tim Burton's Jack Skellington stencil
• Day of the Dead Sugar Skull stencil
• Vector Stock (Some really interesting vector-based stencils here. Grunge, flowers... all sorts of things. Some are free, most are not. But have a look, and google 'vector art stencils' to get more inspiration)
• Urban / Eastern stencils
• Stencilry (Quality urban stencils to download)
• Stencil Revolution (forum)
• Stencil Punks (music and agit prop)
• Stencil1 (These urban art stencils costs $10 but we really like their music-related ones)

How to spray paint a stencil on your leather jacket

No, we won't leave you in the lurch! If you've got your hands on an airbrush kit (lucky you) that's a bit more complicated than the procedure above. So here's how to do it:

First, acquire a stencil design. Next, spread newspaper or an opened up bin liner on your work surface to prevent spillage and stains. You're working with messy paints, after all. Lay the jacket out flat on your worksurface so the bit you wish to spray is facing you. Place your stencil design in position, and tape it temporarily into place so it doesn't shift (duct tape is good. Duct tape is good for nearly everything). Tape more newspaper around the stencil so you don't get spray marks on your jacket. Insert a tube of spray-friendly paint into your airbrush kit, plug it in, hold the airbrush gun close to the stencil's surface (about an inch away) and fill the stencil with paint. Do it till the stencil's done! Then remove the stencil and leave the jacket where it is to dry for a couple of hours.

How to put spikes or studs on a leather jacket

As well as going for traditional placements, you can experiment with the positioning of studs ans spikes. Heart/lightning motifs? Ohm symbols? Well, why not? Make sure you place your studs in areas so the jacket will still be comfortable to wear. Once you know how to apply studs and spikes, you can customise old leather belts, bags... all sorts of things.

The guy in this video recommends getting screws and studs/spikes online and going with the screw stud method. He also recommends getting them at an online shop called... ta-dah... studsandspikes.com.

Of course, it doesn’t have to end with leather jackets. Create your own unique customised leather wardrobe, from your shoes to your underwear (though not many of us sport leather underwear). A little handcrafted love has more beauty than sweatshop laboured 'perfection'.

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