I started noticing the Custom Denim Jacket with Patches trend last year. Many of them were catered towards sports teams, and the main target of these businesses is the professional athlete’s wives, or “WAGS” as they call it. 😉 (Wives and girlfriends.)

Well, I don’t have that professional athlete shopping budget, and even if I did, I’m not sure I would pay $700 for a jacket. Yes, that’s the base line cost of these custom denim jackets. As many of you know, we are huge fans of the Vegas Golden Knights! They are the first professional sports team in Las Vegas, and we are all about it. We have season tickets, so I’m always trying to find fun outfits to wear to the games. (There are a LOT of home games in a season!) While I loved the idea of these jackets and admire these companies’ creativity, I decided considering making my own custom denim jacket with patches. I’ve worn my jacket on Instagram a few times now, and always receive so many questions about it.

Today I’m taking you along the journey of how I made my Vegas Golden Knights custom denim jacket with patches.

First, I had to find the perfect denim jacket to custom. I ordered four so that I could try them all on and compare. Things I was looking for in my jacket: A relaxed oversized fit that would work well with layers, slightly distressed, and comfortable denim. I ended up going with this Madewell jacket . I tried on some similar styles that were slightly cheaper, all of these styles are under $100. 

Next I rounded up the perfect patches and pins for my custom denim jacket! I found most of them on Amazon and Etsy. I also grabbed one or two from the Vegas Golden Knights store, The Arsenal. This part was really fun. I found a lot of patches and pins that were relevant to Las Vegas, not necessarily the Golden Knights, which was fun because I knew they would be things that not everyone else had on their jackets. There are so many fun options, so to make things easier I added all patches and pins to my cart and then narrowed it down once I had searched everywhere. Search things like your city, the sports team, “hockey” or the particular sport you are making a jacket for.

There are quite a few companies now that can make you a custom denim jacket with patches, so search around for inspiration on where to place your patches. I moved them around quite a bit before I got it just right. I used clothes pins and tape to place them in the exact spot that I wanted, and then decided what else I wanted to add to the jacket. This was the trickiest part for me. I say the more texture the better, so I wanted to add some glitter to mine. I decided to put VGK in gold glitter on the sleeve, some small details on the end of each sleeve (which I’ll show below), the Vegas strip in gold on the top back (we used this file on my moms cricut machine), and an embroidery of the Vegas Golden Knights logo below it.

Lucky for me, my mom had just purchased a fancy embroidery machine that she was excited to test out. She ended up telling me later that she purchased an identical jacket before starting just in case anything went wrong. I am so happy with how it turned out! She sewed on the patches, and used this cricut machine to cut out “V G K” and the Vegas strip in gold glitter vinyl. (You can order these letters here!) If you don’t know someone who can sew, I imagine you could take it into an embroidery shop, but I’m not sure what the cost would be.  If you don’t have a cricut machine you can order vinyl letters here!

I had debated doing stripes on the arms, just like the jerseys, however I decided to go with something a little more subtle. As you can see in the picture above and below, we added a little hint of red and gold on the sleeve. This was made with the cricut as well.

My mom found this embroidery file on Etsy of the Vegas Golden Knights logo. I love how it turned out, and I left some room for future patches on the back.

I’m not sure exactly how much this custom denim jacket would have cost with embroidery fees, and purchasing vinyl VGK letters, but I do know that I paid no where NEAR $700 for my jacket! I plan on making small custom denim jackets for Michael and Paige with just one or two patches on them to match mine.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial on how I made my custom denim jacket with patches. If you end up creating a jacket of your own, I would love to see! Tag me on Instagram stories creating your jacket and showing off the finished project!

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Go Knights Go!