Day 108 | Chain Stitching

Here's some good information I found on a website called BlueInGreenSoHo.com about chain stitching. Seem the people there know their stuff, and worth a look.

What's in a stitch?
When you buy a pair of jeans at Blue in Green, they will hem them for free. All hemming is done with a vintage Union Special 43200G chain stitcher, the same machines that hemmed the original American work wear of yesteryear.

So, what's a chain stitch? A chain stitch is the type of stitch you see on the hem of premium jeans. It is made of two threads chaining and locking together for superior strength and flexibility. It's much stronger than a regular single stitch. When you cuff a pair of premium jeans, a beautifully stitched chain-stitch is the perfect compliment to a nice double-selvage outer seam. . . .

Why use a Union Special machine?
Union Special sewing machines were the machines that constructed the original jeans of old. These vintage machines are still some of the strongest machines out there and are highly sought after by jean aficionados worldwide. Because of the unique characteristics of the machine, it has a special "pull" to the fabric while stitching, this creates a slight directional pressure in the hem. As the jeans shrink after several washes, this tug will develop a pronounced "roping" effect in the hem. This effect is most pronounced when the hem is stitched with a vintage Union Special chain stitch hemmer machine.

When possible they apply the same thread used by the manufacturer for sewing the jeans and match the color as close as possible to the thread used in the original hem. They go to great lengths to match the color, weight and texture of the thread, even if the original chain stitch uses two different color threads. The end result is an exact reproduction of the original hem.

They also offer hemming for online orders, just make your request when checking out in the "Customer Note" section.

Tomorrow I'm off to the slopes for a week of snowboarding and cross country skiing. It'll be my second time trying it. Hope I don't seriously injure myself. At least there's some good snow already. Kläppen.se

Day 72 | The evolution of jeans

Here's the main reason I am writing this blog and doing this test, to learn more about denim. Below is what I could find to be the most accurate on the beginning of denim, by Jan Adkins for motherearthnews.com. If you disagree, feel free to comment.

"In 1853, a Bavarian immigrant named Levi
Strauss, an astute merchant in San Francisco, responded to the gold-rush need for tough miner's clothes. He had his stock of brown cotton tent canvas run up as plain trousers, no belt loops and no back pockets. A cinch belt in the back kept them up. Scrabbling among too many rocks and too little gold, crawling along shafts, wrestling timber supports and balky dray mules, Strauss's "overalls" lasted. They were cheap and they felt good.

Strauss switched to denim (from serge de Nimes , a twill made in southern France) and had it dyed in reliable, uniform indigo. By the I860s, Levi Strauss's blue pants were daily wear for miners and farmers and cattlemen throughout the West. In 1873
he bought, for $69 — the price of the patent application — an idea from a Russian immigrant tailor in Reno for making miner's pants stronger by riveting the critical seams. They were nicknamed jeans after the city of Genoa, where sailors wore blue cotton canvas.

By 1880 the Levi was full-blown, with orange stitching (including the trademark "arcuate" design across the back pockets, once the functional anchor for pocket lining), bar tacking, rivets, watch pocket and the "Two Horse" leather patch. Lot numbers are assigned to products and, for the OI-weight denim used, the "waist-high overalls" are called 501s. It's true; more so than most of the thin ghosts we call up for our heritage, Levi's are rooted in the real stuff."

Really interesting stuff, if you realise how popular jeans are today, and that it all only happened in the last 155 or so years.

Day 62 | Stitching

I haven't really covered stitching in the past sixty or so days. We all know that all jeans can vary in many ways, from denim type, to cut, to style, to wash, to just about anything under the sun. The same with stitching. I covered different ways, different manufacturers treat the button holes on day 17 for instance, so imagine what else is possible with the stitching.

You can vary the colour of thread, the thickness, the length of the stitches, the style of stitching, the way you fold the denim while you're stitching. So many ways to change the look and the feel of jeans from one to the next.

The Dr.Denim Harris Blue Black raw pair I have, has the "standard" yellow denim stitching. Nothing fancy. Hidden stitching on the outside leg, and the yellow visible stitching on the inside leg. You can see from the three photos that the stitching isn't brand new any longer. There's a bit of chafing and some wear that has started to show on the lower legs. I covered the wear on the denim and the stitching on the lower leg on day 58.

The denim around the stitched areas on the jeans are starting to show some real wear. Should be interesting to compare photographs again in a months time.

Day 51 | It's cold already

One thing I'm trying to get used to here in Sweden, is the cold. I'm originally from South Africa, where we have a lot of sun. I find it strange, that you can have a perfectly sunny day here, no clouds in the sky, and no wind, yet it'll be 4°C or even colder, as it was three days ago. It's not even winter yet. I love autumn though, with its beautiful colours in the trees and on the ground.

I have decided to follow some of the advice I posted yesterday. From now on, I'm hanging my jeans up by the back belt loop. I've noticed that the seams on the sides are starting to get worn, from hanging them over my door, and pulling them down in the mornings. None of that any more. I have a clothes hook on the front of my clothing cupboard, so I'm just hooking them up on there. I still open them up to "breathe" and "dry out" though. I'll post a photograph tomorrow. I think it's better this way, then they're never folded flat, as they were over the door before.

Day 49 | Superfuture Supertalk

While I was looking around the internet for interesting websites on jeans, denim and how to clean them, I stumbled upon a website called Superfuture Supertalk, which according to them, contain "discussions for superbored global shopping experts". Having trudged through their site, I stumbled upon a page about all things denim, or as they called it the "Super Denim Encyclopedia".

It's a discussion board where members post threads (Questions or topics), and it gets answered by other members or "experts". They cover subjects like how to get rid of wine stains, chewing gum and blood. There's also subjects like how to store your jeans, and then all the others like different kinds of stitching, types of raw denim, shrinking as well as making your own jeans. I haven't gone through everything, but will be looking a little deeper over the next couple of days. Looks like a lot I still have to learn.

Day 45 | A thousand words

As a design student my lecturer always drummed into my head, the age old saying of "A picture is worth a thousand words". "Stop thinking about the text, and think about a striking image instead."

It's with that thought, that I was browsing through the photos I have taken over the past 45 days, of the same pair of jeans. Same jeans, different angle. Same jeans, a little bit older. What more can be said? What more can be shown?

So I've chosen the photo above. What do you see? What do you think? It's the hem of a pair of pants, that much is certain. I can see it's pair of jeans. The denim seems very dark, very raw. The stitching is a darkish yellow. The hem seems a bit dirty. A bit scuffed. They're lying on the floor. There's a fold about an inch up from the hem. They must be too long for the wearer. What else? You could literally go on forever on what you can see, but also about what you can't see. Why are they on the floor? Why are they dirty? Why are the hem's scuffed?

It's all part of the test, seeing a pair of jeans, over a period of six months getting older, and older, before your eyes. Things you would never have seen, if it hadn't been recorded.

Day 31 | Back pockets

I want to look a bit at the pockets. Today we'll do the back pockets. Nothing really fancy here. I mean you know what some companies do to the back pockets.

Have a look at Victoria Beckam's back pockets. Not that I want to bring that style of jeans into this blog, but as an example of how far some companies go with the back pockets. I have a pair of Evisu jeans, and they have the big M on both pockets in baby blue. I prefer nothing on the pockets, with maybe a little bit of stylish stitching, but not too much.

Back pockets for me are very important. Let me tell you why. It's because of where they sit. On your bum. If the pockets are too small it can make your bum look too big, and that's why you should take care, when you buy your next pair of jeans. Not that we should be so conscious about our looks. I do however like the pockets on these jeans, because there's no big crown on them that will make everyone look at your bum.

Day 17 | More button holes

I've taken 5 of the jeans that I own, with different styles, cuts and denim, to show how different companies stitch button holes.

A - This it Dr.DenimJeans. The denim is raw and the cut is between slim and straight. The button stitch looks very roughly done, and as I've mentioned before, it looks like the first place that will show wear. Also yellow thread shows the wear easier on the darker denim.

B - H&M Sliq. A cut that suits me very well, because I am 1,92cm tall. The denim feels raw, but it looks like it's been treated and coloured again after it's been washed. The button hole stitch is done with very thin cotton thread, unlike the others, but looks very neat.

C - Puma/Evisu Worn In. These have been my favourite pair of jeans for the last 3 years. I also own the same style but in unwashed/stif denim. The cut is straight and is by far the most comfortable jeans I've owned. The button stitch still looks new, after 3 years of regular wear and was done with a lighter blue thread.

D - H&M Sliq. Another pair, but with a different denim. Looks a bit raw, but has been washed and is a good, every now and then, pair of jeans. The button hole is very neat and tidy and done with yellow thread.

E - TBY (To be young). A pair of flair jeans I have, that have been treated and washed. A really comfortable pair, but flair seems to only now make a comeback here in Sweden, where "skinny" and "slim" are still very much the dominant style. The button hole is very hard to see, so if it starts to wear, it will be very hard to tell.