Refurbed Jacket W/ Sugar Skull Embroidery And Grommets

Day of the Dead Styled Jacket
This was an unstructured/square cut blazer/jacket that I bought for a few dollars at a thrift store. I love the style but it was very big on me and I don't look good in a square cut. I needed it more fitted. So I thought of adding the grommets and ribbons to the side plackets to sinch it in. I've been wanting to get back to hand embroidery lately and I've been dieing to make a sugar skull. So it seemed a good idea to make one for the back of this jacket.
I didn't do a detailed "How To" for this because there wasn't much to it and I did it in a hurry for an event and I just threw it together. It probably isn't done quiet the correct way.
I am not completely pleased with how the grommet placket turned out. I miscalculated on the how far apart to put the grommets. They needed to be much farther apart for the jacket to sinch in the way I wanted it to. So it's still boxy and a little baggy on me. But it still looks pretty good. I wore it to my 50th birthday party my family had for me last night (my real bday isn't until Tuesday).
If you try this space the grommets farther apart than I did.
I measured about five inches down from the armpit of the sleeve for the first pair of grommets. I spaced the grommets 2 inches apart...next time I will space them 4 inches apart. And I spaced the pairs 4 inches apart.
I wish I knew exactly what kind of fabric it was that I used, because it is awesome fabric. I got it awhile ago, end of the bolt, on sale at JoAnn's. It's stark white and the front is very much like soft kid suede and the back is stiff cotton and polyester mix. It embroiders beautifully and gives a wonderful affect. But good white felt should look great also.
I looked at a lot of Sugar Skull designs on line to get a feel for what I wanted. I used a free coloring book page for the basic shape of the skull and the placement for the eyes nose and mouth. I then basically marked off areas of the skull that I knew I wanted designs on. Then I just winged it, lol. Did my own designs free hand. I used to embroider very well. I now have agressive osteo in my hands and thumbs. So I couldn't do all the stitches the way your supposed to. So I improvised and actually sort of made up some of the stitches. I tried to use the brightest colors of the floss I had.
I traced the basic shape of the skull onto my white material. Then I cut a big square of it around that so I'd have enough material to put in an embroidery hoop. I then basted interfacing to the back of it. You can use fusible interfacing if you want. I didn't because, one, I didn't have any, and two, I was going to use fusible web to iron it on the jacket, so I figured I didn't need the fusible interfacing.
Then I put all of that in the hoop and stitched away for several days, much to the great pleasure of my cat, lol.
Then I ironed the fusible webbing to the back of my white fabric, cut out the shape of the skull then ironed it onto the back of the jacket. I had to put the heat higher and use the iron longer than they said because of the thickness of my fabric.
Then I whipped stitched in a bright color all around the edge of the skull sewing it to my jacket.
Last step is to iron a piece of good wool felt to the inside of the jacket covering the whipped stitched I used to attach the skull. If I had had more time I would've use lining fabric and sew it to the entire back panel of the jacket instead.
So that's it for the first original project I've ever posted on here.
Hope you all like it!