My First Time With Coffee | Denim Beer Machines & Coffee

Fashion designer Maurice Malone 3rd grade class photo — Maurice Malone

Coffee

Remembering my first coffee

Published on July 4, 2022

I’ve been drinking coffee since I was a very young child. Most likely, I was younger than I appear in this photo. I estimate 4 to 5 years old. I can remember the day I had my first cup because its taste seared that day into my childhood memory.

My family had driven down from Detroit to visit my Grandma in Columbus, Ohio for the holidays. My mom has a big family, and my Grandma had a very big house. In the mornings the family would slowly come down from the upper floors to gather at the table in the kitchen. My grandmother would make hot chocolate for the kids and hot water for instant coffee (my mom’s favorite), or a fresh pot would be percolating on the stove for the other adults.

For the kids, she made this awesome toast with butter and sugar broiled in the bottom drawer of the stove. The key – put the butter and sugar on before toasting. To this day, I prefer buttering my bread before toasting it. I also liked to dip my toast into my hot chocolate and stuff it into my mouth before the soggy part fell off.

On this day, I asked my mom, “what does coffee taste like?” She poured some coffee with cream into my empty cup. I didn’t like it but was still curious. I don’t remember whose idea it was to try it with sugar but I did, and my taste buds exploded! From that day forward I began my mornings drinking coffee with my mom, substituting in an occasional hot chocolate now and then.

Beer

Shiner Strawberry Blonde Watermelon Recipe & Review

Published on July 1, 2022

Shiner Strawberry Blonde is a crisp, pleasantly sweet beer without the bitter aftertaste that I’ve found in other fruit-flavored beers. It’s my thirst-quenching go-to beer.

How to make a Shiner Strawberry Blonde icy watermelon beer recipe with Wonder Melon juice — Use Shiner Strawberry Blonde beer, jar or glass, and watermelon juice to make a great summer drink.

My brother-in-law likes to drink his beers warm, as-in room temperature. He only refrigerates beers if he expects beer-drinking guests over. I’m the opposite. I like my beers cold. As cold as possible. I like to put them in the freezer until they are so cold, that they freeze up as I pour them into a frosted glass.

If you are like me and enjoy a beer with a little fruit flavor, I’m going to share with you one of my favorite tasty beers, along with a little thing I like to do to enhance the fruitiness and temperature.

I first discovered this beer around 2016 while running around Los Angeles, making jeans. Always on the hunt for new beers, the name sounded enticing. Without remembering the brewer’s name, only the package design and words Strawberry Blonde, I bought six-pack after six-pack until heading back to New York.

A few weeks later, I had a craving for that strawberry beer I discovered in LA. Checking the beer selections every time I walked into a new store, it took months before I discovered a retailer. The thing was, this retailer was in lower Manhattan, and I lived in Brooklyn. This meant I had to load up whenever I passed by the area. Eventually, that store ran out, and I wouldn’t come across Shiner’s Strawberry Blonde until several years later.

Recently, while shopping at one of my nearby grocery stores, I spotted a sale on six-packs for a little less than $8. I nearly bought the market out, leaving about two six-packs for other shoppers to discover. With over a hundred strawberry beers around, it gave me time to experiment with different fruit combinations to enhance the flavor.

Find a glass with a strong base that can take the expansion of liquid freezing, and fill it about 20-25% with watermelon juice. Pour in a cold beer (the colder the better). The juice will keep the beer cold while slowly releasing a little added watermelon flavor into the beer, reaching its flavorful peak as you finish the last few swallows.

I usually keep two glasses frozen because I usually have about two beers with dinner. By the time I finish the first beer, only a core of frozen juice at the bottom of the glass. Fill the glass with more juice and place it in the freezer. The still frozen core will help the added juice freeze faster but grab your second glass for your next bottle of beer.

I’ll admit, I like drinking Wonder Melon juice by itself, but it’s not the best juice to “ice” with beer because it has secondary flavors added. A more commonly available cold pressed juice and better tasting option would be WTRMLN WTR.

How to hem a t-shirt video cover photo shows the hem being cut off the bottom of a white t-shirt.

Denim/How To

How to hem a t-shirt professionally

Published on May 20, 2022

We take a quick and humorous look at the alterations process of hemming a t-shirt. Those looking to shorten the length of a tee or lightweight knit shirt that’s too long, or simply trying to restyle the look, should have a peek at this new tutorial video “how to hem a t-shirt.”

A short video that explains how to hem a t-shirt

Tapering jeans sewing on a Union Special 35800 feed-off-the-arm machinen

Machines

The Union Special, it’s like a plane, it flies itself!

Published on May 2, 2021

After tapering a pair of jeans with an overlocked inseam, Isreal the production manager, and tapering expert at WGC shows off his sewing skills, single-needle topstitching the inseam just 1/8-inch from the seam edge with his eyes closed. To quote Isreal, working on the Union Special feed off the arm machine “It’s like a plane, it flies itself!”

*”Our Secret Trick for Sewing a Perfect Inseam – with Eyes Closed!” (Union Special 35800 Feed-Off-The-Arm)*

*WATCH-

close-up example of a chain stitching and selvedge at denim jeans hem — Close-up photo shows chain stitching on the hem of a pair of selvedge denim jeans.

Denim/What is?

What is chain stitch hemming?

Published on January 8, 2020

Chain stitching is a type of stitch produced by a sewing or embroidery machine. The name chain stitch comes from its looped chain-link-like appearance. In sewing, a chain stitch has a single stitch line on the top side and a looped chain-like stitch on the bottom side.

Single, double, and triple-needle chain stitching is popular in denim clothing and similarly constructed garments. It is usually found on high-stress seams which often incur stretchings such as the center seat seams, yokes, panel seams, inseams, and waistbands. The triple-needle is more often used in workwear.

Tension in the stitch pulls the fabric into a slight pucker, allowing a bit of stretching. A favorite in garment manufacturing because it provides a strong durable stitch that can easily be undone if needed. The tension creates a decorative puckering effect which is especially visible on denim seams and hems, as the fabric shows signs of aging, washing, and wear.

What is hemming?

Hemming is the sewing process of shortening the length or finishing the bottom edge on a pair of jeans or pants. Hemming uses a method of double folding into itself the raw fabric edge of the leg openings to make a clean smooth edge.

What is chain stitch hemming?

Chain stitch hemming is when a pair of jeans or pants are hemmed with a chain stitch sewing machine. The hem of most jeans is traditionally sewn with chain stitching about 1/2″ above the bottom edge. Some makers choose to make the height of the hem taller or shorter as a choice of design aesthetic. The below photo is an example of a chain-stitched hem with a traditional-sized hem.

Example of chain stitching on the hem of a pair of selvedge denim jeans

Why are some jeans made with a regular stitch at the hem?

We see jeans without chain stitching predominantly in the work of novice denim brands or designers inexperienced in the category of denim. However, being a neophyte is not the rule as seen on the below hem of Levi’s jeans. Even the biggest most celebrated brands sometimes use factories accustomed to producing low-end / discount denim and commonly disregard chain stitching if not a design decision.

Lock stitched Levi's jeans made without a chain stitched hem — Lock stitched hem on lower price range Levi’s jeans

APC selvedge jeans with wide lock-stitched hem

To be clear, we don’t know why any brand would purposely choose to use a regular stitch at the hem, especially if they are well-established denim brands, however, some are known to do so. Take A.P.C. for example, which is a major French brand that has a generally well-educated denim customer base and has been pretty successful in making jeans for a long time. They purposely choose to go with a hem fold that is larger than most jeans, plus use a single needle stitch (trouser styled). This is obviously an aesthetic choice.

That said, customers that send us A.P.C. jeans for hemming or tapering, almost always request traditional chain stitching and hem size. Very rarely do our alteration customers request trouser-styled hem construction, which may be an insight into the thinking of U.S. enthusiasts.

Video of Chain Stitch Hemming in Action

Photo shows what is a original hem alteration — Close-up of an original hem alteration

Denim/What is?

Avoid original hem alterations

Published on January 4, 2020

An Original Hem alteration. What is it? And, why you should stay away from this type of hemming alteration.

People often fall for this alteration because they like the washed or worn edge on the hem and believe it will be lost while shorting their jeans. Most choose the Original Hem alteration because a tailor or seamstress offers the option, or they learned of this novel alteration that touts keeping the tattered hem by cutting it away and reattaching it to the jeans.

Tattered washed hem edge removed from jeans in order to reattach it when performing an Original Hem alteration — The leg opening from an Original Hem alteration

ORIGINAL HEM ALTERATIONS – DON’T DO IT!

First of all, it’s cheesy, hacky, corny, wack… There are many ways to describe this bad idea. We get lots of jeans from those who tried this alteration with requests to have their jeans rehabilitated and hemmed with traditional chain stitching. A word of advice, don’t waste your time and money damaging your jeans or wearing this embarrassing look.

Close-up of light washed jeans with original hem alterations — Close-up of light-washed jeans with less flexible original hem alterations

Patience pays off. There is really no reason to hack up your jeans. If you wash and wear regularly, the wavy lines and abrasion highlights will return to jeans after traditional chain stitch hemming. If you want to speed up the process or have a lot of shredding, try roughing up the edges of the hems with sandpaper, an electric grinder, or cut them up with a sharp blade.

To fix bad hemming, the original hem has to be cut away or opening -up, depending on sewing construction. — This cleaner sewn version was sent in for removal. The customer said it was annoying to wear, like a ring around their ankle.

Tailors and seamstresses use multiple techniques to make original hems. The results in our opinion are all bad. In every approach, a seamline is added where there was none before, losing the flexibility of the original leg bottom. Layers of fabrics are sewn together and create a stiff, unsightly, (depending on how heavy the fabric or which method is used) uncomfortable line above the new hem. Other less stiff techniques leave the inside of the jeans looking so hideous, that you would never want to turn up the jeans to make a cuff. Also, if you don’t tack the hem down (which leaves additional visible stitch lines) the hem can flip up exposing the embarrassing-looking sewing construction.