Men's Jeans, Model A-1, Cone Denim

I finished these jeans last week. 13.25 oz American-made Cone Mills denim, red selvedge, unbleached canvas pocket bags, hand-peened all copper rivets, antique Finck's Red Bar top button and antique black enameled buttons for the fly, single needle stitched with hand felled seams. These have been soaked hot and line dried, but them put in the dryer to see if they would shrink anymore. I made the pattern from an existing pair of jeans and then combined it with another pattern and tweaked it a little. My goal is to make something similar to the style of jeans you see in pictures of motorcyclists from the late 1930's and 40's; a pretty straight leg with a somewhat fitted top block. I got close with this pair, though the leg is still too tapered.

I'm really wishing I had a machine that could handle heavier gauge thread and thicker material. My 1950's White is a pretty awesome home machine for shirting, but it's no friend of denim. Most of the skipped stitches can't be seen on the outside but I don't like to see skipped stitches anywhere.