*
I’ve been sewing for many years and have not seen this addressed anywhere. Concerning ladies pants which way should the fly face. Most of my patterns have the fly lapping right side over left, yet all of my store-bought pants are the opposite. I’ve looked in several catalogs (Land’s End, L.L. Bean, etc.) and they all picture pants like my store-bought pants. Does anyone know if there is a standard? Personally, being right-handed, the store-bought way (lapping left over right) makes more sense. I’m working on a pair of pants now — please reply asap. Thanks
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Replies
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Like you, I find the Lands' End method is more logical as I am right-handed too. When I took a pants-fitting course at the Liberty's Sewing School in London recently, the instructor said it is really a matter of personal preference. So I made my pants sample the Land's End way and the other 7 people in the class did theirs the opposite way!
*The reasoning behind right-over-left dates back to a time when ladies did not dress themselves, but had someone else do them up. This made it easier for a right handed dresser to do up her lady's clothing.Because women's blouses and jackets generally button right-over-left, it makes sense aesthetically to have the fly do the same.Having said that, there is a huge rationale to making blouses left-over-right, as I discovered with a trip to the dry-cleaner one day. I have taken in a number of silk shirts, most costing several dollars to dry clean, but one cost only 99 cents. Turns out that the less expensive one did up the menswear way - and for some reason the dry cleaner charges MUCH LESS for a men's shirt. A valuable lesson - ever since that time, whenever I have made myself a dry-clean only shirt, I have made it left-over-right!
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