An invisible or concealed zipper can really give your garment a professional edge.
And it's easier to sew than you think!
Hi, I’m Angela Wolf!
Let me show you my foolproof way to sew an invisible zipper.
Here I have an invisible zipper 2, two pieces of fusible interfacing and the skirt pieces.
Choose a zipper that's 2 inches longer than the opening.
First, stabilize the seam where the zipper is going to be inserted
My fusible interfacing is cut about an inch longer than the zipper opening and is wide
enough to cover the seam allowance and another half of an inch.
I'm trimming one side of the interfacing with pinking shears to prevent it from showing
through on the right side of the garment - that's an especially good tip for lighter weight
fabric.
Line up the interfacing along the top and side raw edges, and press by holding the iron
for about 3 to 5 seconds, lifting and pressing.
Next, prepare the zipper by pressing the zipper teeth away from the zipper tape.
Make sure your iron is at a lower setting, (you don’t want to melt the zipper!
) And just quickly press, see how this fold opens?
– this make it much easier to sew!
Now - take a look at this handy line here on the zipper tape - that will be good guide
for you to follow with the needle when you come to sew
Here are both pieces of fabric - and my zipper.
Start with your zipper closed, this will hopefully stop you from sewing it in backwards.
Flip the zipper with the right side facing the right side of the fabric.
Insert one pin to keep the zipper lined up and now unzip the zipper all the way
Line up the zipper tape inside the edge of the seam allowance.
You want those zipper teeth to land right on the seam.
So if your pattern calls for half-inch seam allowances you would line up your zipper right
here.
This is an invisible zipper foot, which makes it real simple to sew.
/ See these grooves underneath the foot?
...they line up with the zipper teeth and glide right along that edge as your needle
goes through the hole.
But!
You can also use a standard zipper foot, the difference is the foot will glide along the
edge of the zipper teeth like this.
Line up the standard zipper foot with the needle right next to the zipper teeth, using
that handy line as your guide and stitch.
This snip represents the bottom of my zipper opening, back-stitch and one side is finished.
Zip up your zipper and find that snip - now with a fabric marker make a mark across from
the last stitch - this will show you where to end your stitches.
Well done!
Take a bow! - or take a break - then start on the other side!
Now turn the edge of the second piece of fabric right side toward the right side of the zipper,
pin it in place, and open the zipper all the way past the last stitch.
Flip the fabric, remove that pin and start pinning the tape in place, just like we did
before.
Pushing the finished side of the zipper out of the way, you're now going to stitch down
this side.
Just put a couple pins in here to keep everything in place.
Change the zipper foot to the other side, /
line up the needle right next to the zipper teeth, and stitch.
When you get to the the mark representing the last stitch, back stitch and you’re
almost finished It is very important that the stitches on
each side of the zipper tape are even right here.
If they're not, go back and stitch a few more stitches on the shorter side to even them
up.
You're nearly there!
The final step is to close the rest of the seam.
Place a pin along the seam allowance underneath the zipper tape, push the zipper tape out
of the way as much as possible.
Add another pin.
Back at the sewing machine line up your needle here, starting a quarter of an inch above
the last stitch, just on the inside of this stitch line.
Push the zipper tape out of the way, back stitch twice and stitch.
Switch to a standard presser foot and starting on that last stitch, sew the rest of your
seam closed So let’s take a look at our finished zipper!
See how neat the seam below looks?
And on the right side you can hardly see the zipper teeth, which is perfect since it’s
an invisible zipper!
That’s how easy it is to insert one!
Thanks for watching!
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