How To Remove Patches / Names Off Of Letterman Jacket / Coat

A few years back, I found a nearly new letterman jacket in the women's section of a second hand store in my daughters school colors for $15. It was a women's cheer style jacket and my daughter was a cheerleader at the time.

I took a chance and purchased the jacket for about $15 figuring it was a wool coat and would keep her warm and was cute even if I couldn't get the patches off the jacket. It was surprisingly easy to remove the patches off the jacket and she wore the coat regularly.

I found another men's XL letterman's jacket at a second hand store which was NEW with the tags on it. Because of my past experience with the other jacket, I knew I could easily remove the patches from the jacket and have myself a nice wool and leather jacket. 

While at the store, a woman suggested I leave the M on the jacket and make it into a Mickey Mouse Jacket and maybe put a mickey patch on the front or back. I thought that was a great idea so I bought the coat. Since the coat had been there for a month, it had been marked down three times and they marked it down even more when I asked so I was able to get the coat for $20. 

Just the patches on the coat would cost more than $20. Similar coats on Amazon that are only 80% wool are $149 but they do have some leather on them so I am guessing this is near a $200 coat. It is really a quality piece and I think it was well worth what I paid. 

I made a video about how to take the patches off a letterman's jacket but for some reason the sound was bad for the first 30 seconds or so and I think maybe one of the jacket sleeves was in the way of the microphone. 

Basically, you take a seam ripper and go from the TOP of the patch so you don't rip into the wool or fabric of the coat. Find a thread of the zig-zag stitching and slide the seam ripper under that thread stitching and use the seam ripper to cut that thread. NEVER go into the fabric of the coat with the seam ripper in any way or even poke through in a downward way with the ripper as you can damage the coat. 

Seam rip a few threads in a row and then you can start to lift up the patch and use the ripper to easily cut through the thread but only do that above the coat and never near or on the coat fabric. By lifting up the item by holding onto the patch, the thread will pull a bit and then you can get the seam ripper under it easily and cut the threads quickly. Once the patch is off, pull out all the cut thread from the fabric and you can use packing tape to pick off any thread fibers still stuck onto the coat quickly and easily. 

Once all the threads are off, you can use your fingernail to rub the fabric a bit to fill in any needle stitching holes left in the fabric. Just rub your nail gently over the fabric and the holes will disappear. 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Have a Blessed Day!