I agree that alchemy can be very helpful at various levels, but tailoring (or any other craft) will allow you to craft hammers while alchemy won't. So leveling a second profession once you hit max level can be quite profitable - especially in 7.1 when they make crafting fabled hammers much cheaper, so it's a real alternative to CS items.
Well, for crafting hammers i would recomend weaponsmith or blacksmith. It's easier (IMHO) to mine (if you have pet - CS item - even easier). Tailoring and leatherworking are so random. You need to cut materials and pray to get the right component for recipe.
Avo
At least on F2P, you can use any kind of nubuck mats (stripe, patch, etc.) to replace nubuck pattern for that recipe, isn't it the same on P2P ?
Anyway if it's even easier with other profession, thanks for the tip !