No Flies on Me!

But there will be pretty soon!  I was lucky enough this weekend to take a class with Ron Collins, the fabulously talented and patient Canadian designer, at Creative Stitches in Calgary.  This show was held at Spruce Meadows, a fabulous equestrian centre that is world renowned.  This meant that the hall was very large and spacious, but with a faint smell of manure :)

As with most sewing shows that I have been to in the UK and here in Canada, quilting is such a big component, that I worry about the viability of fashion sewing/dressmaking.  I'm so glad to see it represented in blogland.  Having said that, I did take a lot of photos of some gorgeous quilts and booths - as well as the fabric that I bought, but more about that in another post!

So without further ado - here is my little baby patiently waiting to sew . . .

The class was great.  If you don't know Ron Collins, he works a lot with Sandra Betzina.  He is very patient and knowledgeable and completely understands the 'self taught' sewing brigade, as he is one of us!

Photo courtesy of Power Sewing.

We were taught to incorporate the fly into the front pattern pieces:

Sorry about the crummy photos but the lighting was not very good.

We were also shown how to extend the front pockets towards the fly and that acts as a 'powerband' to hold the front flat.  It would be particularly good if you had pleated trousers as there would be no strain on the outer fabric with the pleats, it would all be on the inner pocket fabrics.  As you can see I used green thread so that I cold see what I was doing! 

I know, it looks a bit of a mess, but it really was quick and easy to put together.  And the final result . . .

I'm really rather please with this.  In a way this class was a little like the bra making course - a mystery was de-mystified and I know feel equipped to attack 'proper' trousers!!  Oh, and I did two different types of pocket top-stitching, and yes some of the stitching was a big wonky!

And the wrong side,  A bit messy, but you get the picture!

Unfortunately there was one downside to this class - I managed to lose a foot for my machine.  What a nuisance.  Fortunately it was the 1/4" quilting foot so it was easy to replace, but grrrrrr!

I'm so pleased that I took this class - trousers with fly fronts have been something that I have previously avoided, purely because I did not know how to sew them up.  Watch this space!

How about you - have you learned any new skills or techniques recently?