YGO 5D's: Academy Patches

I made a vector for the YGO 5D's Duel Academy patches when I was making Schoolboy!Yusei and my roommie was working on Schoolgirl!Aki. I used several screenshots from the Janime 5D's image gallery as a reference.

I recently checked up on my Formspring account, and someone asked if I could share my vector to cosplayers trying to make patches for their own Duel Academy uniforms, so here it is! Anyone is free to use it as long as proper credit is given, and I'd love to see pictures of the completed cosplays if you choose to post them online! :3

SO HERE'S HOW YOU TURN IT INTO A PATCH!!!:

1). Go to your local fabric or craft store (or even Wal-mart's craft section), and get some printable fabric sheets. I suggest NOT getting the iron-on paper because the material will crack, fade, or rub away. I personally got the regular cotton fabric sheets. They have a paper backing that you peel off after you finish printing, but the back texture of the fabric itself is just like the front once that paper is gone. They can be a little expensive (a few sheets for about $10 I think?) but you can get 40-50% off if you go to JoAnn's fabrics and use the mailing list coupons or the coupons occasionally provided in the fliers at the store entrance (If you are a cosplayer who goes to JoAnn's fabrics and have yet to sign up for the mailing list, then shame on you! You can save big bucks if you use those coupons!)

2). Read the directions on the back of the package and print out the patches. Be sure the image here is adjusted to fit the whole page so the size isn't too big or two small. You might want to do a print test on a regular sheet of paper before using the fabric sheet in case you need to make adjustments to the size or anything else.

3). According to the directions, you have to wait for the ink to dry completely before peeling off the paper and giving the fabric a good rinse in water. Run the water over the ink until you rid of all the excess and the water is clear.

4). Let the fabric dry completely, and then iron out the wrinkles.

5). This next part is optional, but I chose to use it to make future steps a little easier. Iron the fabric sheet to some "Heat n Bond" (same stuff I used in my Akatsuki Cloud tutorial [link] ), the glue side of the Heat n Bond needs to be facing the back of the patches. Peel off the paper backing of the Heat n Bond afterwords.

6). The gray line around each patch is the end of the allowance you'll need in the next step. Cut out each patch along that gray line.

7). One edge at a time, fold the fabric allowance under the patch and try to get the fold to line up along the edge of the patch's design as best you can. Iron in place; if you used the Heat n bond earlier, the folds will stay in place more permanently (but be careful not to iron too far into the center of the patch; you don't want it to stick to your ironing board XD)

8). Now you're ready to attach the patch to your jacket! Pin it in place where you want it, and you can use an iron to tack the center onto that spot of the jacket if you used the Heat n bond. Regardless if you used it though, you'll still have to sew around the edge of the patch because the edges where you folded won't have heat n bond on them. Try to use a yellow thread that matches the edge of the patch.

9). Once it's sewn in place, you're done! the end result will hopefully look like this

Have fun, and I hope it's useful ^.^

Yugioh 5D's is (c) Kazuki Takahashi