Raw Cut - Issue No. 024

A pair of jeans made in the Raleigh Denim workshop doesn’t come off one sewing machine.

It travels. Between cutting, pressing, sewing, and finishing, it visits equipment built for very different jobs. Some machines return for several appearances. Others spend their working lives doing one thing.

This week, we’re following that trip. From the cutting table to the handwritten name inside.

Patterns are laid over the denim and traced. The cutting knife follows their outlines, separating legs, pockets, fly pieces, and the other shapes that will become the pair.

Some pieces are immediately recognizable. Others make more sense after a few folds and stitches.

For now, they’re gathered for the next stop.

Fingers turn a back-pocket edge and hold it in place. The iron presses into the fold, steam hissing beneath its edges, a damp rush of heat brushing the fingers holding the denim close.

Then comes a detail you probably wouldn’t notice on the sewing table: the pocket isn’t attached completely flat. The sewer eases in a little fullness so it can follow the body and leave room for a hand.

That comfortable pocket opening started with a deliberate adjustment beneath the needle.

The felling machine folds adjoining edges together and stitches them with the raw edges enclosed. It joins the yokes (the shaped sections below the waistband) to the back panels, then joins the backs along the seat seam.

Meanwhile, the fronts receive their pockets and fly. Front meets back at the inseam; the outside seams close the legs.

Lift the denim from the table, and the separate pieces finally hang together as a pair.

The Union Special 43200G chainstitches each hem. Afterward, the sewer ties the thread ends in a double knot by hand to keep the chain from unraveling.

The waistband takes shape at its own machine. Another Union Special makes one continuous strip, later cut into belt loops. The center-back loop gets a separate selvedge piece, leaving a clean edge on its hidden side.

The bar-tack machine snaps through dense reinforcing stitches at the loops and back-pocket corners.

Then the Reece 101 rattles around each buttonhole before its cutter opens the center. Look closely beneath the finished stitching: there’s a little red thread tucked inside.

Buttons, rivets, the leather patch, and the remaining securing stitches complete the pair.

The jeans are turned and checked. Loose threads are trimmed.

Before the pair is folded, the sewer reaches for a black Sharpie and signs their name on the pocket bag.

The signature is the final detail: a personal mark of pride in how the pair was made.

155 days since the stiff jeans were pulled on for the first time.
Today marks 151 days in the jeans.

This week, the Fader traded the fields for Parents Weekend in the mountains. Fall foliage, a little preseason baseball practice, and jeans still carrying some harvest dirt.

No major fade developments. Comfort remains high. Laundry remains pending.

Italian denim mill Candiani tested an unusual destination for its fabric offcuts: the soil beneath tomato plants.

Its COREVA stretch denim uses a plant-based alternative to conventional elastane and is designed to compost under suitable conditions.

Candiani buried scraps in a growing experiment, harvested tomatoes, and made pasta sauce.

A small experiment with a bigger question behind it: what could stretch denim leave behind when we’re finished wearing it?

See the experiment on Candiani’s site. Scroll down to the video.