dead old blog

Please note, my blog has moved to www.DocPop.org/blog Check it out for my newest writing. Please don't link to this blog entry, you can use http://www.docpop.org/2007/07/29/40-ounces-of-denim.html instead.



I went to Zeitgeist friday night with Emma and her friend Poncho. Avoiding my usual rules, I mixed different alcohols. Starting with an order of 3 shots of Fernet and a bottle of nigori sake, then a shot of whiskey and some of Poncho's tequila. I think there is probably a rule that anybody named Poncho has to have tequila on their person. Did you know Poncho is short for Francisco? Sort of a Bob/Robert thing. Hmm... I live in San Pancho? That works.

Anyways, the tequila was followed by Purple Hooters shots, and then I walked home. Needless to say, Saturday morning was rough. Actually, Saturday afternoon was rough, I woke up at 12:30, then decided to go back to sleep and get rid of my headache. I finally woke up at 4 and, after a bowl of ramen with egg, decided to make the worlds dopest selvage beer cozy.

It's sexy ain't it? Even cuter than my coffee cozies. The bottom is leather.









update: Thanks for checking out my coffee cozy. Please note that my blog has moved to DocPop.org/blog. Click here to see some of my newer crafts (and denim related projects). Or check out my Etsy account at www.DocPopCrafts.com!

Labels: Self Edge denim raw Samurai blue jeans selvage

Please note, my blog has moved to www.DocPop.org/blog Check it out for my newest writing. Please don't link to this blog entry, you can use http://www.docpop.org/2007/06/24/raw-denim-coffee-cozy.html instead.



I've always felt a little wasteful for heavily using those disposable coffee cup cozies, so I decided to make my own using scraps from tailored jeans.

Introducing the world's first selvage coffee jacket!

Of course I used scraps from raw denim jeans that I had tailored, and I used the new chain stitch machine for all the sewing. It's easy to carry around, I either keep it in my left rear pocket or I wear it like a wrist band. It totally does the job, keeps my drinks warm (or cool) and my hands lukewarm.

The photos are from my fave local coffee shop, Nervous Dog Coffee. Joe at Nervous Dog is big in to recycling, so he loved the cozy.





update: Thanks for checking out my coffee cozy. Please note that my blog has moved to DocPop.org/blog. Click here to see some of my newer crafts (and denim related projects). Or check out my Etsy account at www.DocPopCrafts.com!

Labels: Self Edge denim raw Samurai blue jeans selvage

After two months of preparation, I'm glad to announce my newest project is finally rolling. I've started doing tailoring for Kiya's high end denim store Self Edge. Offering chain stitched hems has been very important to Kiya, so he contacted me to help him find an industrial machine. He had already picked out one, that turned out not to work for hemming, but luckily we found a fantastic Union Special at Wai's Sewing Machine Repair in Chinatown. I think the price was great, and James even helped teach me some basics of using an industrial machine.

The Union Special now sits in my apartment, between my studio and my drafting table. I've been sewing a lot during the last year, but using an industrial machine is such a different experience that it's literally like starting back at ground zero. Even finding thread was been way more difficult than I expected.

I'm thinking that once I get the fundamentals down, working for Kiya will be a fairly easy gig that I can totally do on my own time. It sounds pretty stress free, right? I thought so, at least up until I did my first jeans yesterday. I had been practicing on several scraps before I moved on to my first actual pair... Let me tell you, cutting up a $400 pair of jeans is stressful enough, but when the owner of the jeans is the guy that has invested heavily in the same machine you are tailoring with... wow.

I spent about 7 hours working with the machine yesterday, and another 6 today. I found several interesting features on it today, but I think there are still tons more to learn about. Hell, even threading the thing is a nightmare.

All that being said, I think 8 jeans I did today turned out great and I'm feeling way more at ease than I was this morning. I pick up and drop off orders on Mondays and Thursdays btw.

Astute readers of this blog will probably know what I'll be doing with all that new scrap! After all, that's how I got the gig from Kiya in the first place.

More pics of the machine can be found here.

Labels: Self Edge denim raw Samurai blue jeans selvage

While most folks spent Sunday evening squatting upon colorful easter eggs (that's what people do, right?) I was hunched over a sewing machine hella tailoring pants at Self Edge's first ever "Denim Shorts Party & Competition".

It started at around 4:30pm. I set up my machine on an old oak office desk and started cutting up the first pair. They belonged to someone who couldn't make it that night (again I'm going to assume that if you wheren't at the party, then you where attempting to hatch rabbit eggs) so he left a pair of really worn in high quality denim pants for me to short-ify. Hemming is a new skill, one that I had barely any experience before last week, so each pair was a learning experience. But since these pants were worn in so nicely, they turned out to be a terrific pair to start on. We cut off about 3 feet of material on each leg. That's a shitload of selvage material.

The jeans turned out great, I did a straight stitch on the bottom, then added a parallel decorative stitch about 1/4" above it. At this point people started to line up with jeans for me to butcher. I would say that the theme of the evening was a cross between decadence and gaudiness. Basically it was a "who has the balls to cut their nice jeans so short that we can literally see them".

Pictures have been posted here!

Of the 4 winners, I had hemmed the top two. The first place pair were not expensive jeans, but they were hemmed insanely short. So short in fact that we made a matching loin clothe for them. But the shorts owner actually took it one step further by actually shaving his legs as I was hemming his jeans.

Next time we do a shorts party I'd like to see 4 total sewers and separate prizes for best shorts and best tailoring. That way we'd have an incentive to get more creative with our sewing.

The contest wrapped up around 10pm, that's 5 hours of sewing! For what? For massive money? Fame? Free SEXIH jeans? Nope... basically Kiya is a pal and if it wasn't for him I probably definitely wouldn't live in SF. So I hooked him up with hard labor and he gave me access to all the scrap. Of course that means hella selvage wallets!

Labels: crafts, Self Edge denim raw Samurai blue jeans selvage

It's been a while since I've done a Scrap Life project, so I thought it was about time I shared a new one. The Scrap Life projects first started when I took some of the scrap leftover from my Love Life bag and made a wallet out of it, and this project is somewhat similar.

I don't have a lot of Love Life scrap left, so I also used pieces of scrap from high end selvage denim that had been tailored.



The design is based on a wallet that Eric Zo made and gave to me a few years ago. I simplified it a little, but the basic idea of a wallet that folds into itself as show in the pictures was his. When working with the denim I wanted to make sure that the selvage line would be worked into the design.

I had mentioned these denim wallets before, but I've been making some really swell ones lately. Check out this one I made from scraps of leather and Samurai Jeans.

I was really surprised at how easy it was to work with leather. It was the perfect size piece, I didn't even need a special needle, just the same one I've been using on denim. My next goal is to learn how to create a tool to brand my logo onto the leather.





Fuckin' beautiful, aint it? The wallet design itself is largely based on simplicity. The wallets are stripped down to their barest necessity and that helps keep them really thin and comfortable.

The denim is high quality raw denim, as it breaks in it becomes form to fit. Check this out, as the wallet breaks in it gets easier to use and softer and thinner. Closing the lip when tucking in the edge of the wallet can be tough at first, but as it gets used it really breaks in nicely.

Here are some pics of more wallets I made. For these I used bits of mens neckties, upholstry sample swatches, and even some that are all denim. Notice that some of them have selvage lines on the the lip and also have a line at the card holder.

Labels: crafts, scrap life scraplife, Self Edge denim raw Samurai blue jeans selvage

I have written before about my buddy Kiya's high end denim store Self Edge, here in the Mission.

On the weekends I ocassionally hang out in Self Edge to yo-yo with Kiya and listen to him talk to customers about the characteristics of really expensive raw denim pants from Japan. One of the things that really struck a chord with me, was the notion of wearing in the pants to fit the owner.

Off the shelf, raw denim pants are often characterized by thick/starchy feel. Denim freaks wear the pants for weeks before the pants start to break in. I guess each pair could be seen as a constant work in progress, never quite broken in, just better with each wear.

Last weekend I started to think about my upcoming tour in March and the thought popped up that a week and a half of touring would be a great way to get intimate with a pair of jeans. More thoughts appeared like "one pair of jeans would really make packing easier" and "every time I wear them I'd remember the tour that I broke them in on".

The following monday I couldn't take it anymore, so I went down to Self Edge with Shannon and we bought a pair of $290 selvage jeans. We picked out a pair of Samurai Jeans. I guess the idea of wearing some really stiff tight jeans on a tour didn't sound as good after a bit, so I'm starting the process now.

Like I said it's probably going to take a while before the pants get comfy, but as you wear them the pants really shape to your body. After wearing them for a full day, the pants were still really crunchy. In fact, when I took them off my hot bod they totally retained my body's shape. So much so that they could stand upright completely by themselves!

After a few days I tried to get them to stand upright again, but they would keep crumbling at the knee. It was glorious! They were breaking in.

After breaking in the pants for a week, I will soak the pants in water (Evian? Just kidding.) for a half hour which will make them shrink a whole bunch. Then I'll wear them in another week before bringing them back to Kiya's place to get hemmed. The pants are really long right now, so I expect that even after soaking them I'll have a bunch of material to remove... hopefully enough to make something really really cool. A wallet. Or perhaps another denim hat?

Labels: crafts, Self Edge denim raw Samurai blue jeans selvage