1940s Lee Riders (2)
Today I’ll focus on the way the fly shield was sewn. Lee used several different methods for constructing the fly over the years, but this is a particularly interesting one. If you look closely, you’ll see that the topstitching on the fly shield extends onto the waistband. In close-up (pic 3), it is clear that the waistband was sewn on before the fly shield was finished. As the waistband was clearly sewn in one go, it logically follows that the outseams must have been sewn before the crotch and inseams were done. So the order must have been: outseams → waistband → topstitching of the fly shield → crotch → inseams.
This is different from the way Levi’s and most other jeans are constructed. In fact, the Levi’s way (fly piece → crotch → inseams → outseams → waistband) is a lot easier and seems more efficient, and it is a mystery why Lee chose to do what they did. But then, with Lee, things are often not what they seem, which is what makes them so fascinating.
This particular detail of how these jeans were made is so unknown that even the Lee Archives repros get it wrong. Some of the models have topstitching on the fly shield that extends onto the waistband, but if you look closely you’ll notice that the topstitching actually stops below the waistband, and then an additional few cm of stitching was added extending onto the waistband after the waistband was attached.
Another characteristic of the fly on these Lee Riders is that the fly shield envelopes the front body, whereas with Levi’s and most other jeans the front body is sewn onto the fly shield. I like this Lee method a lot and use it in most of the jeans I make.
#vintagedenim #vintagejeans #realvintage #fly #flyshield #flypiece #lee #leeriders #eurekajeans
Eureka Jeans
