Uniform reproductions

I spend a lot of time on ebay looking for Acme/Interlake artifacts and I have come across some interesting historical items, a few of which I even purchased. I came across an Acme Steel patch which was clearly used and authentic a while back and before I even considered what to do with it, I made the purchase from a seller in British Columbia Canada.

As I waited for it’s arrival, I began to calculate a project around it. I figured making a work shirt would be pretty interesting but just having it sewn on would be boring. I wanted to personalize it, so I landed on Etsy and found someone who custom fabricates name patches with colors of your choice. Based on the ebay photos, I did my best to match and waited for my second package to arrive.

It wasn’t long before both arrived and I quickly saw the error of my ways. My haste in trying to put this plan together before I had the Acme patch in hand was a bad idea. Clearly the lighting the ebay seller used was a bit strange and it made the black patch appear to be a dark blue, almost violet. Sometime around then, I realized that the actual title for the auction stated “Vintage Truckers Patch. ACME STEEL BLACK 5X7cm“. Emphasis on BLACK. And not only that but the yellow was a far cry from the gold used on the Acme patch.

So then I decided to do things correctly and made a call to my old friend Colleen. Colleen owns CR Embroidery in Elmhurst Illinois and I have had her work on a number of projects over the years. She scolded me (rightfully so) for not coming to her with this problem first and I can’t quite explain why I did not. Either way, I brought her a brand new short sleeve Dickies shirt and the Acme patch. Of course, she quickly matched the colors and stitched it all together for me! The shirt of course came out beautiful and I could not be happier. I have yet only worn it once, fittingly on my nighttime mission at the plant where I sweat right through it on a very hot August night.

Not yet satisfied, I wanted another garment and I had another plan. I had always wanted to get a ‘visual green’ fire retardant jacket like I’ve seen worn at the plant in the training video I unearthed in March 2021. Here refractory manager Hank Thomas in the coal bunker conducting a meeting with battery personnel. I’m quite sure these were not embroidered but mine would be!

Maybe if I looked hard enough I could find a high resolution Interlake logo somewhere buried on the internet. Instead, I used the logo on the front of one of my favorite documents and used an online tool (cost me $3) to convert it to a vector file. The immediate results were pretty shocking!

I sent this vector file off to Colleen to have digitized in a format her embroiderer can use, and at the same time get it cleaned up (remove the bits of coal/coke dust that remained after converting as seen above). This also is a one time fee so if I ever want to get something else done (of course I do) I will only pay for the embroidery!

I took a look at green FR jackets on McMaster Carr. They had a 9oz cotton and a 12oz and I splurged on the latter. The results were positively bonkers! Couldn’t be happier with the work and the weight of the jacket is substantial. Maybe it will eventually get cold enough in Chicago to wear it this year (still far to warm in mid-September).

Are these accurate representations of real uniforms worn at the plant? Nope. Not even close. But I don’t care either, I think my renditions are tasteful and they are very functional garments (like 99% of the my wardrobe) and I look forward to wearing them in the future and flying the flag where ever I go.