How to put in a front fly zipper...

Ok, all of you who really know me, know that I don't do alterations!  I mean it, I hate fixing stuff.  (I'm lucky because I do have some very talented friends who do.)  But, I felt bad when one of my friends broke the zipper of her favorite pants...  (I couldn't say no).  Plus, It's makes a great thing to share with you!

Here we go.... (First the challenges) These pants don't have a waistband, so the zipper goes right up to the button-- which is in the fly extension!  I had to think about that for a minute.  Then I noticed that the buttonhole is sewn right through the right fly piece and the right leg... so I couldn't take apart the pants on that side to put in the new zipper.  (It's hard to see, but on the right side, see the blurred buttonhole?)

Before you take out the broken zipper, take a picture so you can use it as a guide as you put the new zipper in!

The first thing to do was to pick out the zipper and the fly extension....

Here's what the pants look like after the zipper is removed.  I also had to pick out the front crotch seam about an inch or so.

Pick a zipper that is the same length of the broken zipper.  (Notice that the right end is folded forward and the left end is folded back.  They need to be folded down that way so they are both "finished" at the top (Because there isn't a waistband to tuck the ends into.)

Put a piece of Wonder Tape on the the left side of the zipper twill tape.

Stick the zipper along the folded edge on the left front leg. (Check your snapshot to see how the zipper is positioned before you stitch it into place.)

When you're happy with the position of the zipper along the folded edge, flip the zipper, right sides together with the left leg (without disturbing the Wonder Tape). 

 

Then sew the zipper to the left leg.  Use your zipper foot so you can get close to the zipper teeth (but not too close!)  Place the zipper face down against the feed teeth, that way you can make sure it's getting sewn correctly.

Here's what the zipper looks like when it's sewn into position.

Now it's time to sew the right side of the zipper to the right leg.  This is going to be done a little differently--because the buttonhole is sewn thru the fly piece.  Since I can't take the right side apart to sew the zipper in, I'm going to topstitch it in place from the right side of the pants.  Start by sticking a piece of Wonder Tape along the twill on the right side of the zipper.  Then fold the end of the twill tape forward (so that it will be sandwiched between the zipper and the fly piece, out of view.) 

The next step is to overlap the right side over the zipper.  This is relatively easy to do because the fabric is "used to laying" the right way.  (When you are inserting a zipper into pants as you're constructing them, it's a little more tricky to get the overlap just right!).  When you've got everything lined up, gently smooth the fabric against the Wonder Tape along the right side of the twill tape.

To sew the right side of the zipper in place, I started by sewing long the inside row of front fly topstitching.   Then I stitched a second row of stitching about 1/4" closer to the zipper teeth--just to be sure the zipper was securely anchored.

Here's what it looks like from the inside of the pants.

Here's what the fly looks like with the extra row of stitching... I think it looks a little bit like a designer detail..

The next step is to sew the front crotch closed.  I just stitched along the original topstitching so it matched up really well.  (There was only about a one inch hole.)

Now it's time to put the fly extension back on.  Use the Wonder Tape to hold the fly extension in place behind the left side of the zipper.  Because the button is attached to the top of the fly extension, I'm going to topstitch it back into place from the right side of the pants.  (Make sure that the top edge of the fly extension matches the top edge of the leg, so the facing will fold back over evenly!)

Stick a piece of Wonder Tape to the top of the fly extension and fold the waistline facing down into position.

Sew through all the layers from the right side of the pants--To stitch the fly extension and facing permanently into position.

From the inside of the pants, line up the two fly pieces and sew a tack across the bottom of them to hold the fly closed.

Here's what the tack at the base of the fly pieces looks like.

Yay, here's the completed repair job!