Cutting and sewing skills will never be superfluous for anyone. Every woman has situations when it is necessary to repair some item of clothing: shorten, lengthen, put a patch. If you know some techniques, then the question of how to sew a zipper into trousers will not seem difficult. A little theory, manual dexterity, and you will not have to turn to a dressmaker.
Nuances of terminology
There are two types of zippers: hidden and non-hidden. The first one is sewn into the side seam of the garment in such a way that only the zipper puller remains visible. The non-hidden one runs along the center of the garment, but it is not visible because it is covered by a special strip of fabric. This rectangular piece of material is called a valance or fly. There is another detail of the trouser fly - a valance. This is also a strip of fabric, but it covers the fastener from below, preventing the body from being pinched and clothes from getting caught in the zipper teeth.
The fly can be set-in or one-piece. If you choose the second option, it should be included when constructing the pattern. To do this, you need to add a rectangular woven piece to the middle seam in the front of the pants. Its length should be 19 cm, width - 5 cm. These are the standard parameters of the valance. The set-in one is made from a separate piece of fabric and sewn to the fly.
When working, it is worth considering who the pants are intended for. On women's pants, the fly is sewn on the right side, on men's - on the left.
Materials and tools
To sew a zipper to trousers you will need:
- sewing machine with overlock foot and regular zig-zag;
- lightning itself;
- a rectangle of fabric from which the bevel will be made;
- trousers with a one-piece fly;
- iron;
- ruler;
- needle, thread, tailor's pins, scissors, chalk.
Many people cannot work with a thimble, but trouser fabric can be quite dense, so it is better to include it in the list of tools. You also need to take care of sufficient lighting of the workplace, because the work requires utmost attention.
Step-by-step master class on sewing in a zipper with a fly
Before sewing a zipper into trousers, you should study the recommendations. The work may seem too complicated for the first time, but eventually it will become clear that sewing in a fly with a fly is considered the easiest thing to do, no matter whether women's, children's or men's trousers are being repaired. Before work, you should prepare the product: all darts should be stitched, pockets sewn.
In women's trousers
Even an inexperienced craftswoman can process a codpiece. Having learned this type of repair, you will be able to save your family budget significantly. To sew a zipper into women's trousers, you need to do the following steps:
- First of all, you need to cut out the valance. It is better to take the same fabric for it that the pants are made of. To do this, draw a rectangular strip on the material with chalk, the width of two valances and the height of its length. You should get an element measuring 10 x 20 cm, be sure to round the lower corners. Now you need to cut it out, fold it in half with the wrong side inside and overcast the edges.
- Next, you will need to mark the line of the middle seam in the front of the trousers. To do this, step back 1 cm to the left and draw a parallel line, placing it closer to the outer edge of the fly. Then fold it inside out and baste.
- You need to put a fastener under the resulting allowance so that the edges of the teeth are visible, and secure it with safety pins. You need to leave a few mm between the fastener and the top point where the seam allowance begins. This way, the lock will not create unnecessary folds when closed.
- Now you need to carefully place the bevel. To do this, its outer long sides should coincide with the edge of the zipper. At the same time, the top should be on the waist line of the trousers. First baste with threads, then sew on the sewing machine.
- Fold both halves of the trousers so that the lines of the middle seams in women's trousers coincide. Now sew the right side of the fastener tape to the fly from the same edge.
- Turn the trousers inside out and overcast the edges of the hem.
- Use chalk to mark a line on the front side of the garment. The valance stitching will be along this line.
- Make a decorative stitch along the drawn line using a sewing machine and secure the bottom with a zig-zag stitch.
- The fastener processing is complete. All that remains is to iron the product.
The skill of creating a valance will be useful not only when sewing trousers. The fasteners on jeans, shorts and some styles of skirts are processed step by step in exactly the same way.
Into men's pants
On men's trousers, the fly will be located on the left side. A step-by-step master class will help you sew in a zipper correctly. To do this, you need to act in stages:
- The first thing to do is to iron the fold. To do this, the valance allowance should be folded inside out. There is no need to do anything like this on the right half.
- Next, attach the fastener with the right side to the seam allowance of the right half of the trousers, making sure that the edges match. Position the fastener stop at a distance of one centimeter from the side and bottom edge of the fly. Sew the zipper along the right side, stepping back from the teeth by three millimeters, closer to the edge of the seam allowance. After this, turn it right side out, fold the sewn part to the wrong side.
- Place both halves of the pants with the right sides together, folding back the ironed fly. Secure the distance from the zipper stop to the groin with tailor's pins. Then stitch the section on the machine. Now you can turn the product right side out and try to fasten and unfasten the fastener several times.
- Sew the second half of the fastener to the left side of the trousers. To do this, fold the fly allowances again, make a notch with scissors along the upper edge of both panels a few millimetres along the ironed fold. Next, you need to turn the product so that the fastener tape, which has not yet been sewn, is on the right at the top. After this, stitch it to the fly.
- Turn the product to the front side, fold it carefully, outline the outline of the valance with chalk. The processing of the fly in the trousers is finished, it remains to stitch a straight decorative line and go along it from below with a zigzag.
You can easily replace a broken zipper by carefully unpicking it and sewing a new one in the same place along the old seams. This job will take half the time.
Algorithm for sewing a zipper into products cut without a fastener
It happens that pants are initially cut without a fastener. Sewing a zipper into them is quite simple. To do this, you need to correctly perform the following steps:
- Rip open the center seam at the front where the fastening is planned.
- Lay the pants out on a flat surface, place the fastener on them and mark the places where it will be sewn on.
- With this sewing method, the zipper will be without a lining, so you can step back about 2 cm from the mark on the right and cut off the excess fabric.
- Turn the pants inside out, position the fastener and pin it in place.
- Sew one side of the fastener. To make sure that everything is in order – the zipper works properly and nothing is in the way – you need to unzip the slider several times.
- Close the clasp and sew the second tape to the other half of the trousers.
- After this, all that remains is to stitch the pants along the seam in the groin area and iron the finished fastener.
To sew a zipper into pants, you don’t need any special knowledge or skills. Desire and a little free time are the key to success. Even a woman with no experience in this matter can sew a zipper into trousers and properly process the fly fastener.
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