Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Easy Sewing 101 and the Zen of Pie

Putting in a zipper! Easy as pie!

OK, here's the deep thought on pie making: some things are simple, some things have to do with the mystery of the thing. Pie-making is simple to do, but the way the pie turns out is altogether a mystery, with all the variables having to line up -- temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and alignment of the planets with the stars, etc.

So although I never have found pie-making all that terribly easy, putting in a zipper is very simple. And I guarantee you there is no mystery involved . . .

Here are some simple instructions:

1. Take your zipper and fabric. Press the zipper flat with your iron.

2. Mark on your seam where the zipper is to be placed. If the end of the fabric is the end of the zipper, then start with a long basting stitch at that point and sew until the zip is to end. Without taking the needle out of your fabric at the machine, switch to a shorter, more regular stitch length and finish the seam.

3. Press the seam open, then go back and put your zipper foot on your machine. Most of the newer machines will have snap-on feet. 4. Unzip the zipper, and lay it, face down, on the open seam. Line up the coils on the left-hand side of the zip with the left side of the open seam.
5. Stitch down the middle of the zipper tape on the left hand side.

6. Zip up the zipper and flip the whole thing over.


7. Now stitch down the side of the seam that doesn't yet have any stitching. Pivot your needle at the bottom, and stitch across the bottom to meet your previous line of stitching from the other side.

8. Now take a seam ripper and tear out the seam that's hiding the zipper.

9. Take a piece of Scotch tape and roll it around your fingers. Roll this up and down the seam to remove all the little pieces of thread from the seam. Or, just tape the entire seam and then pull up -- all the threads should stick to the tape and come right out. 10. Voila! Your zipper is complete!




Like I said, absolutely no mystery involved. Just a great zipper application! Enjoy!

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