A mama from my Real Diapering Circle was curious about sewing in a zipper. Here's a simple tutorial of one type of zipper.
I'm making a simple zipper pouch. I will be showing you one side, after you finish, repeat with the other side and then sew it together in whichever fashion you deem necessary.
As shown above, you will need:
- a zipper foot ( this one is for bernina)
- two pieces of fabric (mine are 5x8 pieces) Birds: outside fabric, dots: Inside fabric.
- a zipper about 8 inches long.
1
Step 1: Pin your two pieces right side in to the opposite side. Visualize how it will fold over. The birdie fabric is the outside fabric, and the blue dots is my inner fabric.make sure the match up. I line them up to the edge. it makes it easy to keep everything even.
2a
2b
Step 2: Make sure your zipper foot is all the way to the left and the needle is really close to the zipper. The foot will allow you to scoot as close to the zipper as you can. On mine, the part of the foot that is flat (where the 4 is) sits on the flat part of your zipper. Picture 2a shows how i hold mine, making sure the zipper stays under the sewing foot. 2b shows what it WOULD look like if the top fabric wasn't there.
3a
3b
Step 3: When you get to the zipper pull, it can sometimes make your stitch look all wonky. So, set you machine to that your needle is in the down position and your foot lever is up (3a). Then wiggle the zipper past the needle to the other side (3b) and continue sewing.
4a
4b
Step 4: Admire your work (4a), and then press the edges down. Careful, since my zipper is just plastic, i don't want to burn or warp it (4b)
5
Step 5: top stitch the fabric in place. Notice the placement of the zipper foot: The back is on top of the zipper, and the flat foot part from the front is flat on the machine.
6
Step 6: Needle in down position, foot lever in the up position, and move that zipper to the other side and then continue sewing.
7
The finished stitch. Now go do the other side.
