Embracing a lack of change

[shermarama]

I am short of time and jeans. I'm not too short of money at the moment, so the obvious solution to this is to go to a shop and buy jeans, right? Except I have already spent too much time in the last two weeks trying to buy jeans and have established that a) finding any trousers with a 36 leg in Dutch shops is still hard, b) there are some available in the fashion chains but they're all of the skinny and distressed variety, c) skinny distressed jeans don't suit me, d) jeans made in any non-fashion-driven shapes are cut for what you might call the more traditionally feminine shape, that is, women with the sort of curvy thighs that I don't have and, therefore, e) all non-fashion jeans make me look like I've borrowed my mum's. Plus ça change.

My usual solution for this is to make them, but I'm short of time. Getting clothes made for me by anyone else is still a very long way outside my price range, but one thing I can afford is a better sewing machine. Mine was basic even when it was new, and having been to a sewing machine shop this morning and had the full sales pitch, I'm now aware of exactly how lacking my machine is, and how much easier many of the fiddly bits could be. One that does all the shiny things costs €500 - €600. There are cheaper ones that don't do some of the things I want, and there's a second-hand one I'm eyeing up for about €250, but all machines that do what I want are computerised. Buying something that is slightly elderly and second hand and also computerised, in fact from the early days of computerising these things, doesn't sound like a brilliant idea.

Five or six hundred Euro is a big investment, though. It would be a sort of declaration of independence of the clothes manufacturing system, but therefore also a declaration that I'm going to spend more time making my own. Then again, if money still doesn't buy me clothes, how else am I going to get them? And if a better machine saves me time, what other option do I have?

Comments

[x-mass.livejournal.com]

one day some day i ma going to back to the class i did on cloths making and do it again sufficiently repeatedly so i can do what you do

and then i will be coming and asking advice about computerised sewing machines

cause if you cant get stuff that fits you in the netherlands i'm stuffed

[shermarama]

I've not actually had any lessons in sewing. Such limited stuff as I know, I've learnt from trial and error, and picking up things from websites and books. Then again it's taken me a long time to learn this way, so lessons might be a good idea.

The downside of learning to make stuff that fits is that then you get pickier about fit. I can get jeans that go round me and are the right length, albeit that there aren't many choices, and I could just buy those (I used to, when I had no alternative) but I don't want to any more because they don't fit as well as ones I can make myself. Sometimes this isn't true - there was a marvellous period from about 2005 to 2008 when Topshop sold jeans that were better than anything I could make - but when it is true, it's time to get the machine out.

I've been recommended XTall by someone Dutch and I think I'm going to try ordering something from there anyway, but given that I have got the alternative of making something, it's less of an issue if they don't fit after all.

[p-dan-tic.livejournal.com]

Dude, would it be a help if someone here bought you some jeans you know will fit and send them over to you. Happy to help myself, although obv my knowledge of womens' jeans is limited.

[shermarama]

Thanks for the offer, but there aren't any jeans that fit me in the UK either... This is a problem I've been having for a long time already, that I was hoping would be easier to solve in the Netherlands on account of everyone being so tall. But it's not, so it's time to give in and get a sewing machine that's better at denim, that's all.

[steer.livejournal.com]

finding any trousers with a 36 leg in Dutch shops is still hard

That is just quite weird. Holland has the tallest average height for women in the world (apart, according to Wikipedia, for somewhere called "Dinaric Alps"). If anywhere should have tall jeans it is there.

[shermarama]

That was my thinking too, but I think I've found more places in the UK that sell a 36 leg than here, certainly on the high street at least. A 34 is no harder than any other length to get here, though, while even that can be tricky in the UK; I think the average size sold would be higher, but the extremes are less well catered-for. I think it's not least because there's one brand that has a fashion jeans near-monopoly, who do a 36 but only ordering off their website, with the only company breaking it being H&M, who are one of the ones who've never done 36.

The Dinaric Alps are in what used to be Yugoslavia, basically. I doubt they have too much of a fashion industry of their own.