Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Type II style Jacket, v.2 (part 2)


















Ingredients: Organic 13oz raw (unwashed) denim from Cone Mills with hand-peened copper rivets on the sleeves and pockets; four colors of thread, mostly 100% cotton; and tack buttons from a distributor in L.A.

I used the old-fashioned style of felled seam, the kind where one of the two rows of stitching is covered by the fold of fabric. The fabric itself is very textured and interesting, and contains a lot of little slubby bits of cotton plant material. I'm pretty stoked that the cotton is organically grown as well; far better for everyone and everything involved in the process, and it's "more vintage" because organic is how everything used to be grown before WWII. I'm expecting this piece to wear and fade really well.

All in all I'm pretty happy with this project. It's the most complex piece that I've built yet, and I had a few challenges, but it came out looking pretty much how I wanted it to. The only real problem is that the armhole is about 1/2" too small so it's a little snug on the underarm. Also, I ran out of "donut-hole" buttons. I'm considering ordering another 3 yards of the same fabric and some more buttons; version 3 should be close to perfect.

8 comments:

  1. can i send you some jeans for a template? love your jeans too...fair trade? cash for services rendered? i'm cool with whatever it takes for you to make some custom clothes that would fit me ;-)!
    happy belated birthday, by the way.
    and it is snowing today in cleveland...

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  2. please stop posting...mike is gonna leave me for these clothes! i also would hire you to make me overalls.

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  3. Hey Matt, thanks for the complement. I'd be into making some jeans for you, and a template pair would really help. My only hesitation is that we may be moving in 4-6 weeks if I get a job that I've applied for. So I don't want to take on any projects until I know what we're doing. I'll let you know mid-April, but either way I'm totally down with making you something as soon as I'm able. As for payment the best would be some sort of trade, in an abstract sense I'm not very interested in money. We'll figure something out!

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  4. Mike's a sexy beast, I'd be lucky if I could land a catch like that! Anyway, overall's sound like a fun project, and from what Katie has told me you'll really be needing some pretty soon. I'll try and let you now if I can make some by mid-April (see above), if that's not too late for you. Good luck with the Early Bird urban farm, I'm very impressed!

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  5. you are great man, make me something, i want a jacket like nicholson in chinatown

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  6. Where do you get your tack buttons from? Also, have you thought of selling your patterns?

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  7. It's been a challenge trying to find the right tack buttons. I bought these open top tack buttons from a distributor in LA called the Button Connection. There minimum is 12 per style, which is pretty good for a wholesaler.

    you know, I don't feel like my patterns are good enough yet, everyone of 'em still need some tweaking, so I don't think I'd feel right selling them. Same reason I've only sold a few of the things I've made. Maybe in a year, but not yet!

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