Evisu Photo Book Tateoti

The Tateoti book is more expensive than a magazine, so I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what is good about it.

It's a similar size to a regular magazine, denim covered, and the first two thirds of the book is just full of photos of worn-in denim. The image captions include the denim grade and style number.



The last third is a bit boring (for me) with more artistic fashion shots.

(Sorry, I posted the same pic twice, here is the other one I meant to post)

Amazon Japan Ships Internationally Fast

I'd been meaning to actually purchase something from Amazon Japan for a while (for a long period of time they didn't ship outside of Japan). I just ordered a stack of denim magazines last week, and they arrived in five days!

I was surprised they arrived so fast. My experience with Amazon USA has always been a wait of approx. one month for the international shipping. I reviewed the international shipping costs, and Amazon Japan charges are more expensive but the cost per item is cheaper. If you are buying five or more books, then it is actually cheaper.

Anyway, I've got a pile of new magazines to look through. I'll post some quick reviews over the coming weeks.

ps. The Evisu Tateoti book is quite spectacular!

Do it with Denim: Competition

If you're a budding fashion designer or furniture designer, you should enter the "Do it with denim" competition.
http://www.doitwithdenim.org.au/
This year's theme is Discoveries. The trick with the rules is that you have to make your item out of denim jeans, not denim fabric off the roll.
The prizes don't seem that exciting to me, but it's all for a good cause.
http://www.jeansforgenes.org.au/

Leather Kit: Card Pocket

Did my first piece of leathercraft. Pretty simple pocket wallet. Two seams to hand sew... pre-hole-punched.

Here's the kit before I started. One piece of pre-cut and punched raw leather. Waxed linen thread. Needles.


I couldn't find info on how to tie off the threads, so I just back-sewed three steps, and then cut. It was pretty tight, so I had to use the pliers to help me get through those.


I probably didn't get the first part tight enough. If I had a soft mallet it would have helped make the crease flat prior to sewing.


Here's the finished product prior to trimming the threads.


It was fun. I'm pretty happy with it. Now I wish I got more supplies from Tokyu Hands. I really want to make a mailbag like this:

Repairs

Last week I made some repairs to the Eternals. I should've taken pics before the repairs, but I'm getting lazy with this blog. Hah.

Here's the result.


The seat had a crease which was starting to wear through, so I used a swatch of denim on the inside and just sewed back and forth.



The crotch had a hole, so I did the same there. You can see the repair thread more clearly here.



And the keys were really starting to destroy, the pocket, so some denim on the inside of the pocket, and sewing through the lot.



I'd been cuffing these since new, so there were parts of the cuff that were close to wearing through... so I did some zig-zagging without re-inforcing.



I'm not an expert on denim repairs, but these are my beginners tips:
- set the stitch length to quite short
- use a specific denim repair thread like this one from Gutermann

http://www.sewingselections.com.au/catalogue/Threads/Gutermann/2.html
It's a mix of blue and white, so it blends in with faded denim.

On the inside I used a black poly thread. I probably should have used the denim thread on the inside, but it seems okay.

Off Topic: Hanshin Tigers

This doesn't really relate to the theme of this blog, but it happened while I was in Japan in March.

On 10th March divers finally found the statue of the Colonel Sanders in the Dotombori Canal... it had been lost for 24 years.

When I first saw the statue on the TV I couldn't understand why people were so excited about a statue of Stalin. Then I realised it was Mr. KFC.

Many of the baseball fans in Osaka were very excited because this should mean that the Curse of the Colonel will be lifted from the popular team, the Hanshin Tigers.

I'm not really a baseball fan, but it seemed like a sign that I should start following the Hanshin Tigers, so I got a jersey.

Stefan Sagmeister Deconstructs Levis

Artist Stefan Sagmeister deconstructed a pair of Levis, including separating the warp and weft.

He then pulled the components together into an artwork.

http://www.papermag.com/blogs/2009/03/stefan_sagmeister_shreds_levis.php
Stefan also has a TED talk that you can watch or download.

Nautical Sweater in Breton Stripes

This is a Nautical Sweater from the Polo outlet. It's cotton x cashmere.

(Thanks to Anon for the update on the naming and the link to the Saint James originals. Nice.)

Samurai Belt L201HS

I got a Samurai belt from IN in Osaka.
I took some pics here in comparison to my Sugar Cane garrison belt. The SC belt is broken-in now, much softer and darker... with stains. I should clean and oil/wax it soon, but I like the unevenness of the stains.


The samurai belt is bigger and thicker than the SC belt. A bit overwhelming, but it should start to feel better after a few months of wear.


http://www.samurai-j.com/web_catalog/2008winter/jeans/other/other.html