"The Smart Ones Just Figure It Out Anyway"

The costume design and construction teacher at my school remarked to me that she usually doesn't get to zippers in her classes because the novice sewists "aren't there yet," and "the smart ones just figure it out anyway." So proud to announce that after a gazillion rocky zipper installations and WAY too many hours of seam ripping, I can sew a zipper. Much to my chagrin, it doesn't take making false promises to a higher power of being good, giving up sugar, doing sit-ups, winning the lottery, or anything remotely like that. Just like the teacher said. It just takes a little common sense.... Hmmmm. Voila! Zippering! I am the mighty zipper warrior - or something like that. Maybe I've just caught on to whatever one else can do easily, with their eyes closed. Here's some lessons that I learned.
1. My zipper was too short, so I covered the ends with fabric. I learned this from Flossie Teacakes: From in Between the Stitches. She has a great tutorial on her blog. Basically, you just cut fabric 1 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches. Fold it in half and then fold in the ends to the press line. Then stitch that on the end of your zipper. It's tons easier if you get a zipper that's longer than what you need because then you just attach it and cut off the excess. However, the covered zipper does look nice in the end.

2. Make your zipper sandwich. First pretty fabric side up. Zipper upside down with the head on the left. Then the lining fabric pretty side down. Right sides of both fabrics are touching with the zipper in between.

3. Here's the magic part... before creating the zipper sandwich, unzip the zipper about 1/2 way down. Put a pin in your zipper sandwich vertically denoting where the zipper head is. Then pin the rest of the sandwich horizontally while carefully feeling for the zipper teeth and getting as close to those teeth as you can. The picture shows the horizontal pins and the vertical pin reminding me where the zipper head is.

4. Now for the moment of truth... start swewing down the zipper to the vertical pin that marks the zipper head. Stop sewing when you get to that pin. Take your zipper sandwich out of the machine. Zip the zipper all the way up. Begin at your original sewing line and continue to the end. Voila! I love it! A perfectly installed zipper with just the right amount of space between the fabric and the coils.
5. Repeat the same steps on the other side of the zipper. Hum "We Are the Champions!" to yourself as you continue because you can rock a zipper! Exciting!

This picture shows the zipper sandwich. The khaki fabric is pretty side up. The zipper is upside down and open half way down. The lining is pretty side down.