Zipper Anxiety
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Subject Author Date
Zipper Anxiety Beth In Alaska 10-14-2007
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Posted by Beth In Alaska on October 14, 2007, 4:00 am
I've been working on The Monks halloween outfit. The pants are just about
done (needed a waist elastic adjustment and a length check and now recheck)
but they came out quite nice - little black thinwale corderoy with pumpkin
cuffs. I decided to be brave and use the serger for these and man... I LIKE
my serger now. Its fast, and i don't have to iron or trim or any of those
tedious things. Speedy is good. However, when I screw up and sew the cuff
on the wrong end....well...then serging is very bad, but I still enjoyed the
serger much more than before.

The other piece I am working on is a fleece vest. Fabric is adorable -
ghosts and candy corn. Its almost done -just need to put in the zipper
(EEK) and finish the edge of the hood. I did not serge this - although I
should have - I was nervous because I wasnt' familiar with how a vest went
together and I worried about having to pick seams on fleece. hard!! I will
say that the bias taped sleeves look so nice!! I wasn't sure exactly how
they would come out but I'm please with how finished they look.

The zipper is giving me ajita. The first time I wanted to learn to sew
(about 8 years ago) I started with fleece hats - and did ok. then I decided
to try a baby footed one piece thing with a zipper....well that was a
disaster - I never even got the zipper pinned and I just never sewed again
until I started appliqueing recently. Very quitterish of me.

So, zippers and I have a bad history.

Please give me your best zipper advice . I'd hate to ruin the vest at this
late date.

And oh yeh - I learned that good shears are the most important tool i have.
By far. Next time someone asks what they should do to get started the first
thing I am going to say is buy a decent pair of good shears. How I could be
dumb enough to have a really nice sewing machine and really crappy scissors
i have no idea but actually being able to cut through the two layers of
fabric cleanly makes sewing so much easier!!



Posted by Dee on October 14, 2007, 2:25 pm
Are you basting first before you try and sew the zipper in? You can't
beat basting for holding items in place, especially zippers.

Dee


Posted by Beth In Alaska on October 14, 2007, 5:07 pm

> Are you basting first before you try and sew the zipper in? You can't
> beat basting for holding items in place, especially zippers.
>


I will give it a shot. I just pinned last time when things were terrible
thank you.



Posted by Kay Lancaster on October 14, 2007, 10:42 pm
On Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:00:02 -0800, Beth In
> Please give me your best zipper advice . I'd hate to ruin the vest at this
> late date.

Probably too late for this one, but I always cut zipper plackets an inch wide
instead 5/8". On fleece, I cut 1.5" wide for a sports zipper.

On fleece, baste the zipper in with double-stick water soluble tape, aka
Collin's Wonder Tape, about $3.50/roll. Lay the garment flat, stick one
side of the tape to the zipper, peel the paper, and stick the other
side of the tape to the fleece. Now sew.

On regular fabrics, I always use a strip of very lightweight or lightweight
fusible interfacing on the placket area before installing a zipper. Basting
in the zipper with WonderTape is a good idea, too, at least as a beginner.

The other thing with zippers is practice. Pick up some miscellaneous zippers
in strange colors and sizes at Salvation Army, and install them in scrap
fabric. After about the 10th zipper in a row, I'll bet you can do it
without looking at the instructions, and they'll look good. Use long
stitches and you can salvage the zippers for more practice.

Kay


Posted by Beth In Alaska on October 15, 2007, 2:46 am

> On Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:00:02 -0800, Beth In
>> Please give me your best zipper advice . I'd hate to ruin the vest at
>> this
>> late date.
>
> Probably too late for this one, but I always cut zipper plackets an inch
> wide
> instead 5/8". On fleece, I cut 1.5" wide for a sports zipper.

You are, but I'll take all the advice I can get for next time.

> On fleece, baste the zipper in with double-stick water soluble tape, aka
> Collin's Wonder Tape, about $3.50/roll. Lay the garment flat, stick one
> side of the tape to the zipper, peel the paper, and stick the other
> side of the tape to the fleece. Now sew.

I'm going to find this. Think they have it as TSWLTH?
I think much fleece is in my future. Its cheap, useful and after looking at
a few books, can be made to look very nice!!

> On regular fabrics, I always use a strip of very lightweight or
> lightweight
> fusible interfacing on the placket area before installing a zipper.
> Basting
> in the zipper with WonderTape is a good idea, too, at least as a beginner.
>
> The other thing with zippers is practice. Pick up some miscellaneous
> zippers
> in strange colors and sizes at Salvation Army, and install them in scrap
> fabric. After about the 10th zipper in a row, I'll bet you can do it
> without looking at the instructions, and they'll look good. Use long
> stitches and you can salvage the zippers for more practice.

What an excellent idea!! I will try this!


I did get the zipper in and I did it as it was in the pattern instructions
and not as I have always read- they had you pin the zipper face down to the
outside of the fabric, sew near the zipper, turn inside and then topstitch
further away from the zipper. Came out ok after one false start, mostly
because I'm an impulsive idiot. Vest looks pretty cute!




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