Next: hemp trousers

Spent a large part of the morning laboriously ripping the seams from my favourite old jeans, a vastly expensive pair made with beautifully soft denim, which I bought in the US in 2005.

I'm not keen to travel to the US again by air, though possibly one day by boat, and (although of course the jeans must be available online or even in English shops) I'm eager to try making a pair myself - using local materials.

If this sounds a tall order, I should tell you that last month I made a fitted shirt myself, on a treadle-powered sewing machine bought on eBay for just £8, and using a £5 offcut of material, with only a little help from my wife's wonderful great-aunt Peggy.

As this eight-second film indicates, I'm very proud of that shirt, which I'm wearing now as I type. Let me tell you, I stared at the fragments of material for months, not daring to start. But with Peggy's moral support and firm direction I made short work of it. The finishing isn't perfect, but it's good enough to fool a casual observer - as the similarly helpful local seamstresses encouragingly told me.

Additionally, I spent a day last week as an "apprentice" at a Savile Row tailors, watching the managing director as he made me a pair of beautifully fitted trousers, and then making a pair for him in the afternoon. (He said they were very good and that he would certainly wear them.)

So: a new pair of home-made jeans. But which fabric to use? As I wrote recently, I'm keen to get hold of material made of UK-grown nettles, and am myself cultivating nettles on my allotment in hope that I can spin them next year. In the meantime, will use one of these two materials, in hemp or hemp/organic cotton, from Drapers Organic. Will let you know more in due course.

Comments

[Maurice]

I noticed the CF bulb featured on your site banner. I have found these last only a year or less. I date everyone I use with a Sharpie. While the old bulbs were completely recyclable, have you seen what is inside the base of a CF bulb? About 23 electrical components, mercury and I presume lead holding the thing together. Oh well, they are all made in China.