Work Pants for Making Furniture

Used $15.99 Carhartt pants. Cheap and good.

Yeah, you can just wear jeans in the shop. Wanna know which brands are tough? Follow Dearborn Denim on Instagram. They regularly abuse all the brands with #80-grit sandpaper to show which ones are toughest.¹

(Big news: Levis are not Levis everywhere. It depends on where you buy them.)

But this post isn’t about blue jeans. The heat and humidity in the Ohio River Valley are punishing, so jeans are uncomfortable and sweaty during the summer months. Our machine room regularly gets to 85° in the summer with the lovely addition of dog-breath humidity.

I do not want to be called Chrissy Rotten Crotch. So, I’m always on the lookout for what I call “ninja pajamas” – lightweight cotton work pants that are durable and comfortable. I’ve tried out a lot of brands – mostly European stuff. Premium American workwear is mostly for shoring up the stuff between your legs with tactical fabric. Do I need Kevlar thread in my pants? No thank you.

So my pants recommendations are a bit unorthodox.

Here’s my best recommendation: Buy used “brand name” work dungarees from Walt’s Used Workwear. They are $15.99 a pair. They are almost always Carhartt brand – made overseas. They are fantastic. The pants have triple-needle stitching, knife pockets (both left and right) and are built to be rented. Because they were rental pants.

The fabric is lightweight, because these pants were normally worn in factories that weren’t air conditioned. They are generously cut, because working-class pants aren’t tailored like the skin on a bratwurst. They move and breathe.

My only caveat is that the sizes are sketchy at times. I wear a 34 waist. But sometimes a 34 pant is too tight. So you might want to order a size up. Or not. It’s only a $15.99 gamble.

Vintage homemade pants made for my below-the-belt brother. These are like a second skin. Note the back belt, which allows me to cinch them just right.

My other recommendation is to buy used European work pants. This is a total crapshoot (or merde tirer). But you might just find your favorite pair of pants ever (I did – a homemade pair of Swedish work pants – patched, stained and faded. But they fit like they were made for me.)

To go down this path, I recommend you measure yourself – in metric.

Oh, and you have to be OK with the occasional miss.

I’ve been buying used workwear from overseas for years now, and my findings are this:

1. Older and patched is better. Old pants are usually 100-percent cotton. Patched means they were loved

2. New old stock (NOS) is usually polyester stuff, which does not breathe

3. I love back belts and ties and buttons for suspenders

4. Old blue looks better than new blue

Where do you get pants like this? From etsy.com. Here are the sellers I’ve bought from during the last few years and been happy with.