Wind shirt and Pit Zips question

[Phong D]

I want to make a wind shirt like the Montbell ul windshirt.

I’m a beginner at sewing.  I’ve done tarps, bivies, this will be my first clothing item.

Do I use felled seams?  I know felled seams and zippers, but I can’t think of how to combine the two in a pit zip?

How do you put a pit zip partway into a seam?

 

Thanks!

[Jerry Adams]

clothes are a totally different animal, takes a bit of practice to figure it out

I use french seams mostly.  Then there aren’t any rows of stitches visible on the outside.  Mostly just aesthetic though.  You want flat felled seam on a tent because it’s stronger when you’re pulling perpendicular to the seam.  With clothes it doesn’t matter.

I have an old jacket with pit zips.  I never found them very useful so I’ve never made any.

Close-up of pit zip strip of fabric covering the pit zip:

 

 

With that cover pulled away so you can see the end of the pit zip:

I can see how they did the seam – they sewed the two pieces of fabric together with one row of stitches, with the raw edge inside.  They then covered that, on the inside, with iron on tape to waterproof it.

I think what they did was:

Make two diagonal cuts on each of the two ends of the pit zip, and then folded under and sewed along the edge of the folds, to the zipper, so it hides the raw edges.

I would play with that on scrap fabric to see if I could figure out a way to do it that looked okay.

[Phong D]

Oh wow thanks for that detailed investigation!  I think I get how it’s  done!

[todd]

I guess I’m old.  I remember this thread here:

 

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/27921/

 

[Author]

Posts