The Dag Jacket

History:

It is no secret that The Dags is a science fiction fan. Throughout his 25+ year existance within his local sci-fi fan community, Dags was a collector focusing on a number of areas: Dune, Batman, Star Wars posters, sci-fi soundtrack albums, and to a lesser degree patches and badges relating to his favourite sci-fi shows and movies, mainly Batman, Star Wars and Star Trek.

At one point in the early 1990s, Dags started to become frustrated that he owned all these patches but had no way to display them. Deciding something had to be done, he started scouring numerous clothing outlets until he came across a black NATO jacket in an army disposal store that was perfect for what he needed.

So with jacket in hand the next phase of the operation was to commence the arduous task of actually sewing the patches on ... and that's where it all started.

Today the jacket is Dags' pride and joy especially as it's adorned with all sorts of patches and badges that, as The Dags says, is a reflection of who he is.

Updates:

Nothing ever stays the same and neither does the Dag Jacket, especially as most of the patches have been replaced at least once and some have been changed upto three times. As it stands now, only two patches on the jacket (the Batman one on the back and the Australian flag) were from the original version, and even they were not on the very first incarnation as the back was originally left blank.

Consideration is often given regarding the replacement of old patches with new ones, but as Dags once pointed out...

"Updating a patch isn't like swapping a Post-It note, you have to be committed to the change and be certain you REALLY want to do it."

All of the patches have been hand sewn on by Dags who tries to ensure there is a balance between one side and the other as well as the back. Also crooked patches are not tolerated which isn't helped by the fact that the jacket - as a piece of clothing - isn't straight to begin with so a few have been sewn on only to be removed and sewn on again. Another area of interest is colour and Dags will often consider a patch based on how pretty it is, ironically on the upper arms you'll find the Star Trek patches are way more colourful than the Star Wars ones.

The left side

Dags was a good friend to a large Australian Star Wars collector who decided to sell his collection in 2000. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Dags bought most of his patches and sewed them all on within a single night (finishing at 5am), most of the Star Wars patches on the jacket came from that collection.

Take note of the Star Wars Norwegian Unit double patch at the top, that was one Dags was determined to sew on straight.

The Skywalker Ranch logo patch on the lower pocket and Lucasfilm pin on the collar were actually bought by Dags at Skywalker Ranch when he visited there in 1993. The Skywalker Ranch fire EMS patch was bought from eBay in 2009.

Dags loves Coka Cola so the pin on the shoulder has been there since the early days.

The Darth Vader chain hanging from the pocket button used to a be a Rocketeer keyring. You'll notice there is no press stud for the pocket as it fell off over a decade ago so the chain is sewn to the jacket.

The chain around the sleeve was added in very early on and is purely decorational, also the end of it is actually sewn into the jacket under the button so won't fall off.

The Star Trek Next Generation pin was placed on this side to offset the movie pin on the other side.

Some patch changes are inevitable as was the case with the Battlestar Galactica patch. As a big fan of the reimagined series, Dags didn't hesitate to remove the NASA patch before it and include this, even though as a patch it's pretty bland in colour.

The Star Wars 10th Anniversary patch on the lower pocket was one of the first replacement patches from the jacket's initial incarnation. In the early version the jacket was more of a general patch jacket and was not soley focused on science fiction. The inclusion of this patch was the start of a new trend.

Sometimes a patch is bought for the jacket but isn't included as there is simply no room for it. In this case Dags bought a nice, colourful Area 51 patch but it never even saw the sewing needle as the Skywalker Ranch fire EMS patch took its intended place.

Both of the Jedi patches on the sleeve say Revenge of the Jedi and not Return.

Dags sometimes buys clothes from Armani Exchange and on one occasion he bought a jacket that came with an AIX pin. Not knowing what to do with it he included it on the jacket next to the Skywalker Ranch patch, which actually offsets the JPS pin on the other side.

The right side

The Lucasfilm patch was a great addition to the jacket which ended up offsetting the Skywalker Ranch patch on the other side really well.

The jacket has only lost two items in its time and both of them were from the collar. At the top you'll see a vacant space where a Star Wars 10th Anniversary pin was located which vanished after being on the jacket for years and years. The second item was a Psi Corp pin (Babylon 5) from the collar at the back which also fell off at some point.

The Star Trek movie Federation pin on the upper chest was a replacement for another Star Trek movie Federation pin of identical design. Unfortunately the original one had a piece broken off (as can be seen in the photo at the top), so Dags replaced it with a new, more shiny version.

The partially obscured patch under the sleeve is the V logo. The original licenced V patch looked terrible so Dags never bought it, but this great looking one came out in 2009 so Dags snapped it up. Unfortunately Dags didn't realise this was an unofficial patch until he discovered that the word "Sweden" was written in Sirian (the Visitor's alphabet) underneath as this is where the patch originated from.

Some patches are MUST HAVE items as was the case with the Babylon 5 patch which cost Dags $50 in an auction back in 1998.

The two Batman patches under the Alien Nation patch were first edition patches meaning they didn't replace other patches that were there previously.

The three Indiana Jones patches were very hard to line up because the elbow size is different to the wrist. In the end some cheating was required to get them to match but it all seemed to work out. Originally Dags didn't want the Indiana Jones patches at all, but he couldn't find the Star Trek patches he wanted so he simply opted to include these ones instead.

The three Star Wars pins above the Babylon 5 patch are a curse to Dags, the Return of the Jedi one in particular is notorious for turning around when the jacket is being worn and needs constant adjustment (ya can't have crooked pins!).

The top patch on the sleeve says Star Trek The Final Frontier Crew but Dags was never sure if this related to the film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier or Star Trek in general.

The Damned pin above the Babylon 5 patch relates to a band from the UK from the 70s-90s that Dags was a fan of.

The Buffy and Angel pins on either side of the Babylon 5 patch are actually keyrings from a teen magazine and have been sewn in.

There are a lot of Star Trek patches in circulation but Dags only focused on the ones relating to the various shows specifically. This is why there is only a Next Generation and Deep Space Nine patch as he really liked these two shows the most.

The Star Wars A New Hope patch is sometimes misconstrued as being really rare, but in fact millions of these were produced in the early 80s and can be found anywhere. This patch was included on the pocket simply because it was good fit.

Although Dags is a non smoker he is a fan of John Player Special (JPS) because of their black with gold trim colour scheme, this is why there is a JPS pin next to the Lucasfilm patch.

Note: This picture is an amalgamation of two photos hence the colour difference from the top to the bottom.

The back

Shown here is the Brotherhood of Jedi Knights patch which I believe is quite rare as it was created and sold by a group who didn't have a licence to sell Star Wars products, as a result they got into massive strife with Lucasfilm Ltd back in the early 80s.

Dags isn't a fan of the slogan "May the Force be with you" but the patch fits well next to the Brotherhood one.

The Batman logo ended up being a problem to sew as there are two pleats on the side of the jacket that Dags had to work around. As this is not an official logo the inclusion of the eyes can sometimes annoy the purists.

Dags is a science fiction fan and a proud Australian, for this reason the inclusion of the Australian flag was required.

The Star Wars 30th patch at the bottom is likely to have a short life due to its position and the fact so much of it is white.

The New Caprica Police Patch was sewn on twice and is the only patch that Dags has deliberately modified himself. The circular portion of the patch was surrounded by a blue shield that was shaped incorrectly to the one seen on the show (Battlestar Galactica). For this reason Dags opted to cut the circle from the shield which fortunately allowed it to balance with the Clone Wars patch on the other side.

It's not often Dags will deliberately track down specific patches to include on the jacket, but both the Weyland Yutani (Aliens) and Umbrella Corp (Resident Evil) patches were bought for this purpose and it was just a bonus that they were similiar in size. The original patches that these replaced were both related to the Back the Future ride at Universal Studios.

Though the TMA-1 patch may look like it relates to NASA, it is in fact from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Funnily enough at one time the jacket DID actually have two NASA patches included.

-	The big Batman patch on the back took three days to sew on as it was critical it didn't come out crooked.
-	Dags wasn't a fan of Alien Nation the TV show, however, he really liked the green colour of the patch so for this reason it was included. Unfortunately he sewed it on without realising that there was an inside pocket so it had to be taken off and done again a lot more carefully.
-	The idea for the sleeves was to have one side be all Star Wars and the other side be all Star Trek. Alas Star Trek patches for Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise didn't come out for many, many years, and by that time Dags got sick of the blank space on the lower part of the sleeve and ended up putting the Indiana Jones patches there. For the Star Wars side, patches for The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones were never released so Dags couldn't complete that sleeve properly either which is why the Revenge of the Sith patch ended up on the back.
-	Dags prayed that they wouldn't make a 4th Indiana Jones film ... but they did AND released a patch for it which is similar in style to the other three!
-	Sewing patches on pockets was a nightmare to do. For this reason all the pockets have only experienced one patch change in the jacket's lifetime, and the upper pockets in particular were very difficult as Dags wanted to ensure they could still be used if needed.
-	Dags once considered including a patch for the film Willow, unfortunately the writing was silver on a white background and there was a concern it would get very dirty very quickly - plus it was hard to read.
-	Patches that are designed to be ironed on are particularly difficult to sew due to the plastic backing which is intended to "melt" the patch onto the fabric. Since it's important that every patch is removable, Dags sometimes has to use a piece of wood to push the needle through the plastic part of the patch. Not fun.
-	Every once in a while Dags will scour eBay for any new Star Wars patches, once upon a time he came across someone selling an Empire Strikes Back 20th Anniversary patch but would only ship it to the US, so The Dags was unable to get it though he felt like saying to the seller "ahhh dude all ya gotta do is just stick it in an envelope!"
-	People sometimes ask how the jacket is washed ... the truth is it isn't.
-	Considering so many patches have been sewn on only to be replaced later, it's no surprise that The Dags has a huge collection of "discarded" patches in his collection - some of which still contain their original threads. Maybe they can one day find a home on a new jacket!
-	Aside from sewing patches, the Dags can't actually sew!