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On this page: All things ZIPPER FLY!
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Welcome back to the halfmoon 101 JEANS Sew Along! Today, in this post, we'll be focusing entirely on the zipper fly (Step 7, View A). You can find the button fly post here, if you are doing View B.
There are many micro-steps to inserting the fly, but with this post to compliment the instructions, I hope that you will feel more confident in constructing your zipper fly.
As always, remember that the seam allowances are all 1.5cm (or ⅝”) unless otherwise stated.
STEP 7, VIEW A - zipper fly
Start by aligning your zipper fly (5A), right sides together, with the center front seam of the wearer’s LEFT leg (1). Pin and sew to the dot only, but don't yet trim any seams.
Press fly piece onto seam allowances and away from the leg. This is what it looks like from the wrong and right side.
With right sides together and dot markings matching, align the RIGHT and LEFT front legs (1) along the center front curve. Pin the center front along the crotch and the fly piece attachment seam. Ensure the fly piece is out of the way.
Sew starting at the crotch up to the crotch dot marking using a regular stitch length (approx. 2.5mm (³/₃₂”)). Back-stitch at the notch. Then change the stitch to a baste length (approximately 4mm (⅛”)) and continue sewing up toward the waist, following the seam of the fly piece.
Trim the seams of the wearer’s LEFT leg and zipper fly ONLY to 0.5cm (¼”). Do NOT trim the seam on the wearer’s RIGHT leg.
Press the seams open.
(Please note that I am re-using the zipper of my old jeans here! Typically, if my zipper has a zipper stop, I would pull the teeth off to get the zipper to the correct size before pinning the zipper to the jeans. However, my zipper does not have an upper zipper stop. To ensure I don't accidentally pull the zipper pull off, I will keep the zipper long for now and place a safety pin toward the top to keep me from pulling too far.)
With the jeans flat, wrong side up, place the zipper face down (ie. so the zipper pull is away from you). Align the edge of the zipper tape with the seam allowance of the wearer’s RIGHT leg and pin to the seam allowance only (center image). You’ll want the zipper stop to be about 2cm (¾”) from the bottom of the zipper fly.
Then place the fly shield (4) on top of the zipper, aligning the finished edge with the seam allowance of the wearer’s RIGHT leg and the zipper tape. One-by-one, take out and re-pin each pin so that the shield, zipper and seam allowance remain nicely aligned and are well secured (right image).
Starting from the waist, and using a zipper foot, sew with a 0.5cm (¼”) seam
allowance, stopping and backstitching when you reach the dot marking on the fly shield. (Tip: my serge-stitch is 0.5cm (¼”), which makes it easy to maintain this seam allowance. Maybe yours is, too!) Then clip into the seam allowance ONLY at the dot marking, making sure you don't clip through any seams.
Flip the zipper and shield over onto the leg and press (left image). Keeping the jean legs out of the way, edge stitch along the fold of the zipper seam, to the left side of the zipper, sewing through the zipper tape and fly shield only (right image).
Place your jeans in front of you, wrong side up, and give them a good press so that everything is nice, crisp and flat.
Carefully pin the zipper fly (5A) to the zipper tape only. (I say "carefully" because you'll want to keep everything nice and flat, while maneuvering the fly shield out of the way and only pinning through the two layers: zipper fly and zipper tape.)
With a zipper foot, sew parallel to the zipper teeth, approx. 0.5cm (¼”) from the teeth. Then sew another parallel line close to the edge of the zipper tape.
With your jeans in front of you, right side up, use your guide to mark the top-stitching (please note that I need to update the guide pattern piece as it does not currently have seam allowance at the top end).
Pin the zipper fly to the front leg from the right side, and pin the fly shield out of the way (image inset).
[Tip from Anne: rather than marking the top-stitch and pinning from the right side, you can baste the zipper fly to the leg from the wrong side. The baste-stitch will then be your top-stitch guide, and you won't have to fiddle with pins!]
From the right side, top-stitch two parallel lines (or use your twin needle, if you have one). You'll be catching the zipper fly underneath, but not the fly shield. Also, you won't be able to go all the way to the center front seam, but that's ok! We'll "clean" that up in a moment.
Now it's time to flat-fell the seams along the rest of the center front crotch curve. Un-pin the fly shield and allow it to lay over the zipper. From the wrong side, fold and press the long seam allowance of the wearer's right leg around the trimmed allowance of the wearer's left leg.
Pin from the right side. This time, you'll want to be sure to catch the fly shield when pinning, as you can see in the right image.
Top-stitch two parallel lines (or use your twin needle), going 2cm (¾”) past the top-stitching line at the zipper fly piece. Then place a horizontal bar-tack at the top of the center front seam, and another bar-tack just before the curve straightens out, catching the fly shield underneath. (Ahem, I got a little overly enthusiastic and placed an additional bar-tack:) This is also a good time to complete the end of the curved top-stitch line that didn't reach the center front seam.
Now you can remove your baste-stitching above the level of the bar-tack and admire your beautiful zipper fly!
THAT'S ALL FOR TODAY!
The hardest part is done! Next time we meet we'll be sewing the front and back legs together.
So happy to being sewing the halfmoon 101 JEANS together with you!