New Q & A at Jsterndesigns!

I was up at 4:30 am trying to figure out how I could put more stuff on my blog more often.  I love doing how-to tutorials ...but they're a lot of work and sometimes I can't find the time to fit that in.   (I reallywish I could put one up every week!)  I also spend a lot of time answering questions from sewer girls via email.  This morning it occurred to me that I could post the questions and answers!  Maybe someone else has the same question!  Yay, so I'm going to start Q & A posts!  (I think that's a great way to fill in some of the holes between exciting how-to tutorials!)

 The best part is, you can participate too-- If you're sitting there trying to figure out a sewing dilemma, shoot me an email!


So, here we go, our first Q & A post:  I got some great questions from one of my sewer girls regarding my misses' jeans pattern.

Q) Did you use a 1/2" seam allowance on all the seams related to the zipper installation? (THANKS so much for the video!)

A.  The seam allowance that you sew the zipper directly to the right leg is 3/8" -- The right fly piece gets sewn using that seam allowance as well (I generally sew right on top of the seam that attaches the zipper to the right leg).

Q) I need to make a better pattern for the fly facing because they didn't match up at the bottom when doing the bartack.  Are they the same dimension, or are they different widths for the left and right? Or did I just mess up with the installation?

A.  Here's how to get them to match perfectly.  Before you add seam allowances-- Make the right fly piece twice the width of the left fly piece.  (The right fly piece gets folded in half),  Then add 1 - 1/2" seam allowance to the left fly piece and 2 - 3/8" seam allowances to the right fly piece.  Finally, you can clean finish the edges before you sew them to the jeans for a neat look! 

Q)  How do you determine how long your zipper should be?  I noticed that your zipper went all the way to the bottom of the fly facing.  How do you figure out how long the whole assembly should be--something I've always been confused about!

A. Generally, I use the zipper seam allowance as a guide to the length of my zipper.  Then I'll make the fly pieces 1/4" longer so it extends a tiny bit below the bottom of the zipper.  The length of the zipper seam allowance is determined by the length of your front rise.  If you lengthen or shorten the front rise, make the adjustment across the front leg along the zipper area.  Then lengthen or shorten the fly pieces to match the adjusted length of the zipper seam allowance

Q) Is there an easy way to topstitch up over the bottom of the zipper? I was doing it blind because I couldn't see what was underneath and I know it should look better than I did it.  If you're cutting off the zipper at the bottom of the fly facing, do you go over it when you cross over to come back down with the topstitching?

4.  I never cut off my zippers to the right length (unless it's an emergency) (I do have zippers from 3" - 6" in 1/2" increments available for $3.50).  The trick to not sewing blind is to mark the metal zipper stop with chalk on the right side of the denim.  If you are using a zipper that is not cut off, there is twill tape under the metal stop that you can catch in your topstitching without killing your needle (or worse!)  BTW, If you only sew down two thirds of the way along the right fly piece, you can pin it out of the way while you're topstitching!)  Then you can tack the two fly pieces together in the last step!

If something isn't clear, please let me know.--  and I invite  anyone with a "Q" to send it along!  (It doesn't have to be pattern related!)  Happy Day, Jen