Another slice and dice

When I first drafted my pants block, I had in my head a vision of Mad Men-inspired, slim fit, ankle length pants with a zipper in the back. I had read everywhere that a back zipper is figure-flattering. Naturally, I asked my mom some questions about construction. My mom's only question was, "Why do you want to do that?"

My mom is a visionary in many ways. She's a lifelong sewist with a good bit of training, and she's a very creative person. She knows more intuitively and through experience about both design and construction than the average Jane. Her objection didn't have anything to do with fashion, though. My mom is, above all else, a pragmatist. She told me that I might want to give that fly front a second shot and left me to discover why.

Discover I did. Given two pairs of pants now in my wardrobe featuring the back zipper and fitting the idea in my head, I see the problems. For the first pair, I didn't include a zipper shield, and the zipper both rubs and pinches. Even with adding a zipper shield for the second pair, one's undies regularly catch in the zip (or maybe I'm just that uncoordinated). And how does one handle a zipper, a zipper shield, and a facing where they converge? It's a construction problem that's completely avoidable with a waistband. Plus, that extra attention to one's fanny because the zipper's topstitching is visible below the hemline is unnecessary (if the opening ended above the hemline, the zipper wouldn't be long enough to get the damn pants on). Plus, comparing back zip and front zip items in my wardrobe, both me-made and RTW, I can't figure out what quality would make a fly front less flattering. I'm stumped, people.

So I'm  (re)drafting a pattern from my block featuring a waistband and a fly front.  I tried this once, but my enthusiasm got the better of my thinking, and the attempt resulted in some Bermuda shorts that were a little strange. This version is intended to correct that weirdness. Redrafting the fly front isn't difficult; it just takes some thinking, some measuring, and a little more paper. Luckily, my brain was in the on position last night after the kiddo hit the hay.

I got all my fabric pressed, even the yards and yards of khaki, and I'm anxious to cut out the cherry red twill. Capris, here we come!