Removing Velcro from a patch- my attempt

*!*!*!*!*!*!*HUGE GOD DAMN DISCLAIMER*!* Do this entirely at your OWN RISK, razor blades are SHARP, scissors are SHARP, hairdryers get FUCKING HOT, me and Tshirtslayer are NOT RESPONSIBLE for any damage to PATCHES or PEOPLE*!!!* YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!*!*!*!*!*!!*!

Hey troops, I've been making plans for my next vest, it'll involve a few velcro-backed patches. I've added one onto a jacket before, it was kinda a pain to sew on, and the velcro teeth makes them lift up a little, and look kinda boxy. Nothing life-ending, but I was considering removing the velcro to give it a more uniform appearance next to my non-velcro'd selection. My first instinct was to search the tss forums for a how-to, but nobody's beaten me to the punch, which is honestly surprising. I turned to google and still came up dry, so figured I would take a crack at it myself.

So yeah, here's my attempt at a clean, seamless removal of velcro from a patch (Spoiler, this is not a success story :P I still wanted to document my method if anyone else wanted to try their hands at it. Take care and best of luck if ya do🙏🤘

Required tools;
Velcro-backed patch
Hairdryer
Razor blade
Sewing scissors(mine are fiskars, not in the first picture whoops)
Flat-nose pliers
An open window

Required listening;
Mortician- Ripped in Half
Torsofuck- Mutilated for Sexual Purposes
Putrid Stu- Pervert With a Plan
Fluids- Necrotwerker
Party Cannon- Safety is Not Priority

To my knowledge, a woven patch is made up of a couple layers. The top one I call the woven layer, this is where the design is, its composed of hundreds of lines of thread woven from side to side, to display a complete picture, kind of like an old television. The second layer I call the fabric-backing layer, which is a firm, usually white or black layer of fabric which is placed beneath the woven layer, to give the patch some muscle to keep its shape and last longer. Some manufacturers add an iron-on glue at this stage, or in my case, a velcro backing. Its at this point in manufacturing that the woven border is added to sandwich the layers together, you can see evidence of that on this patch, as the velcro teeth are poking out underneath the woven border

I first opened a window, because I was gonna be working with glue fumes for at least a half hour, and inhaling them is generally pretty bad. The first step was to remove, or at least weaken the glue holding the velcro to the fabric-backing layer. I did this by grabbing a hairdryer, turning the heat to high, and intensity to the lowest setting. I held it around an arms-length from the patch, gradually moving it closer, and aimed it straight down so it didn't blow away. I did this for about 30 seconds, no longer, since my hairdryer was deactivating itself to avoid exploding

Once the glue was nice and toasty, I checked where the woven design on the front folds. I did this by pinching the patch together and rolling it from side to side, like single-handedly rolling a cigarette, or playing the world's smallest violin. I saw a large fold in the centre, so I kept the patch folded and grabbed my flat-nose pliers, to pull it apart from the velcro. I did it a couple times until I saw both the velcro and woven layers became convex. I tried NOT to yank it out like a bad tooth, but just enough for the woven and fabric-backing layers to separate from the velcro. If you pull too hard or from the wrong angle, you might rip the woven layer from the fabric-backing layer. I had to reheat the patch a couple times

Next, I gently pressed the corner of the razor blade to the centre of the velcro. I pierced it just to the point I could hear it break, as to not cause any damage to the other layers. I was able to get a clean incision in the centre, then wiggled my sewing scissors to make a hole they would be able to fit into. I then cut part way towards the edge with the scissors, but not all the way. Next I cut around the border of the patch, leaving around a quarter centimetre of leeway. Once the majority of the velcro was off, I could see that the fabric-backing layer had a horizontal strip of glue on it, you can see the bristles of the velcro getting caught on it. Different patches will likely have different amounts/locations/flavours of glue, so heating and unpicking from the centre is generally the best strat

At this point, it was just a matter of potato-peeling the velcro from the border edges with the razorblade. It was getting increasingly difficult to avoid slicing the woven border, the fabric backing and my fingers. I whittled away as much of the velcro border until I got to the "Fuck it, that'll do" point in this project. There's absolutely still velcro bristles on my carpet that won't be coming out any time soon, so this definitely isn't a project to try if you're looking to reduce plastic pollution, or if you have pets that could lick/sniff the bristles up

The end result is a slightly crumpled patch, that is likely going to be *slightly* easier to sew onto my jacket. the woven border still had the layer of velcro sandwiched within it, which is likely still going to raise it slightly compared to the other non-velcro'd patches I want to sew on. There's no chance in hell I'd be able to pick apart that without ruining the patch border completely. Ferris has been through enough already, so I called it a night at this point

Was this worth it? In my opinion, honestly not. If you do wanna try this yourself and end up being happy with the result, more power to you, but I'm happy to deal with the slight annoyance of sewing through the velcro, than go through this another 4 times💀💀 If you want this botched buttock augmentation, dm me if you're in the UK and I'll mail it to ya for free. If you're outside the UK and are after some amazing quality velcro-backed smutty patches of any gender, then hit up Absolute Territory Supply^^ Thanks for reading this far, have a good one🍻