I made this jacket to enter in the 2010 Hand and Lock prize for embroidery. I was one of the finalists that year.

For the jacket, I cut up a wool army surplus coat, and remade it into a women’s jacket. It is lined in silk satin.

Hand and Lock wanted some photos of the materials and work in progress, so here are those things.
Top: Design and color layout.
Center: Original design sketch, and jacket de/re-construction.
Bottom: Materials – silk and metal threads, wool felt, designs with holes punched for transfer to fabric.

Here’s a closeup of the back. The center fleur de lis is made with metal threads, couched with silk, and padded with wool felt. The flowers are stitched with flat silk, mostly satin stitch, with some chain stitch and bullion knots. The blue forget-me-nots have metal purl threads cut into beads for their centers.