Wow, what a lot of helpful references you gave me for sewing fly closures! The Perfect Nose even very kindly scanned in Ottobre’s version for me – thanks!

I read through them all, compared with my one remaining pair of RTW jeans, and finally the process started to make sense. So this weekend I decided to try making trousers with a fly closure. My subconscious clearly didn’t want to do it and found multiple excuses for putting it off. First I changed my mind at the last minute about which pattern I wanted to make and had to trace off and alter my new choice. Then I found my zip was slightly too short, and rather than making do, I took the bus into town just to get it changed.

But eventually I ran out of excuses and here are the results. No waistband yet, nor have I sewn the inseams, so there’s still rather a lot to do on these.

You can’t see it, but there is black topstitching. It’s probably a good thing it’s not too bold as there are a few minor wobbles; but that’s why I chose black
topstitching thread to start with.

I think the fly has come out pretty well. Even better, there were no long periods of dithering in the process. It went together like a dream. Even Burda’s instructions for the construction make sense to me now. I have achieved sewing satori!