Once upon a time, NaNoWriMo came out with these awesome Girl Scout-esque writer's badges. These amused the crap out of me and I wanted to get them, but did not know what to put them on. Clearly, some sort of Girl Scout vest was in order!
So I busted out my usual T-shirt surgery skills and revamped a shirt into a (longish, for room to add on) Girl Scout-style vest to put them on. Since when I looked at the original pics of the badges online, I couldn't figure out what most of them stood for (and indeed, you only find out in the pack itself), I figured I should come up with some sort of legend/explanation as to what they were. And slap it on the back. Here is the legend I came up with, for those who are curious.
As I was looking up Girl Scout vests online to figure out where one traditionally slaps the little suckers (I was in Brownies, so I had to put them on a sash. I figured that was a bit too Miss America for casual wear), I looked at 
the fronts and thought, "Hm, this needs more badges."
So at the top, there's two logos for NaNo indicating what the vest is
about. I am totally ripping off Laura's NaNo briefcase countdown. Instead of a troop number, I have Velcro numbers indicating how far along you are in K's. I also made a little pocket inside the vest under one armpit to store the excess numbers for easy changeover.
Here are the patches at the bottom, where they are traditionally put.
But I felt the vest needed more, somehow. The equivalent of the rainbows and the wings for when you "fly up" to another level in Girl Scouts. Say, some proof of how long you've done NaNo and when you've succeeded at it.
Okay, so Chris Baty may not be inclined to make these patches (I had to DIY with iron-on paper, which was A TOTAL #$@t%#$%, let me tell you*), but I thought the vest could use them. On one side, I rounded up all of the NaNo participant icons I could find online, and on the other side, I put all of the winner icons for the years I won. (Yes, I brag.)
And there you are: the NaNoWriMo Scout Vest! Wear to the next write-in and brag.
* Notes to anyone using iron-on paper: do not, EVER, let your iron accidentally come into contact with the paper after it is ironed on to your fabric, and do not, EVER, use iron-on paper that is cut to fit exactly, or wiggles about, when pressing it. Make sure you use a big ol' piece that covers everything, every time you've got the iron anywhere near the paper. I was nearly crying every time I buggered one of those up, folks. It's a miracle this sucker is done.
I uh, took some time off to make a reindeer.
