Invisible Zippers!

Sorry about the long break between posts, I underestimated how much time I'd be spending doing homework, cleaning, cooking, working, and most importantly sleeping.
Well, today I'm going to go through putting in an invisible zipper with you. I've met many experienced  seamstresses who hate putting these in. I think they're easy. I would estimate that I've put in or moved at least a million of these puppies in my life. (That was an exaggeration, but still quite a few.)
So, first, open the package, throw away the instructions, and heat up your iron.
Now unzip the zipper all the way and as you can see in the picture to the right, press open the zipper, making the teeth flat with the zipper tape. You should be able to see how it wants to curve toward the back of the zipper naturally, but since we want to sew as close to the teeth as possible, you want that flattened out so you don't catch any of the plastic in the stitches. It'll get curved back into place once we're all finished.

Next we want to pin the zipper to the fabric. When you are making the skirt, dress, whatever, you should stop sewing about 6-8 inches away from the waistline/top on the back seam. Make sure you do a backstich at the end, so the thread doesn't pull out at the bottom of the zipper. I've found the easiest way to figure out which side to put the zipper on is to first zip it up all the way, hold it up to the seam, and then pin it exactly how it needs to go on. You want to make the teeth face in the direction of the side seam on the skirt (to the right as seen in the picture). That way there's no confusion. Then just unzip and pin down the rest of the fabric until you get to where you reinforced the seam. It helps me to continue pinning on the seam allowance after I've passed the opening, just so I make sure I have it straight and there's no puckering when it's zipped. You are not going to sew past your opening, though. 

If you have an invisible zipper foot, you should put that on your machine. Otherwise, a regular zipper foot will work fine. I always start from the base of the zipper while sewing. I find it makes it smoother that way, and less likely to be off from the other side.You want to put the needle down right next to the teeth of the zipper, leaving just enough room for the zipper pull to get through. As you sew, check your stitches to make sure you're not catching the plastic in (right).

 Now that we have the first side sewn, zip it up and repeat the "lining up" procedure for the next side. Pin it all the way down, making sure you line up the bottom seam to the same spot on this side of the zipper, as it was on the other side. See pictures below.

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  Now you want to lay the garment inside-out, reach in-between the fabric and the zipper, and zip it up. If you zipper is too long, you can just cut it off about 2 inches below the stitching. I use pinking shears, or you can get real fancy and sew a piece of ribbon on the end to prevent fraying. Press the zipper flat from the inside first, then flip it over and press from the outside. Here's the finished product:

Let's hem some jeans!

So today I'm going to show you how to hem jeans. There are two ways to do this. First, you could just do a basic hem: measure, cut, fold over and sew; but since most jeans now a days are all fancy and distressed, most people want to keep that look at the hem. Since it's impossible for even a professional seamstress to get that kind of distressing on a new hem, we'll cut off the old one and sew it back on higher up on the jean. Now I just want to say if you're taking  up an extremely flared pair more than 3 inches, you might need to actually take in the sides of the jean before attaching the hem since they will probably be different widths.
Ok, so before doing any hemming on jeans, I suggest you wash and dry them at least 2 times. Jeans are made of cotton and cotton shrinks. It may be that if you need them less than an inch shorter that the dryer will do all the work for you. When you hem before washing you always run the risk of the jeans shrinking later and then you're stuck with too short pants.
Well, now that you've got your freshly washed jeans, let's do some measuring. You can either have someone else mark where you want the jeans to hit while wearing shoes (don't ever measure yourself, it never comes out right) or you can measure another pair that fit you perfectly. To do this, take your measuring tape and start at the crotch seam. Measure all the way down the inseam to the hem. As long as this pair doesn't have a horribly droopy crotch, you should be good to go.
So in my demo, I'm going to be shortening my jeans both 2 inches and 1 inch. There are some short cuts you can take when only bringing the hem up 1 inch.

So now we're going to measure up 2" from the bottom of the pant. Don't worry about adding seam allowance, it all evens out at the end. Then measure 1/2" from the edge of the previous stitching (see picture to the left) and cut off the extra fabric. You can save this just in case your jeans shrink later and you need to try and lengthen them. (This is super complicated though, so double check all your measuring.)


Now we're going to cut out the extra seam allowance from the bottom of the side seams. This gets rid of the bulk that you get from having many layers of fabric all sewn together. Just cut right along the side seam without cutting the thread holding it together. Then cut right above the previous hem. See the picture to the right for a visual.




Next we line up the hem section with the rest of the pant leg. Make sure you don't mix up the right and left legs or the seams won't line up properly. Once you have the fabric pinned together (right sides facing inside), we're going to sew right along the fold of the hem. As you can see to the right, I have my middle mark on the presser foot acting as a guide. Try to get as close to the fold as you can without catching any of it in the stitches.

Once you've sewn the two pieces together either serge the edges, or if you don't have a serger, you can zig-zag right along the raw edge. Use a very wide, tight zig-zag so there is no fraying when they're washed.

Now, at this point I'll get into doing it with only taking 1" off. Instead of cutting the fabric, you're going to measure and mark 1/2" from the stitch line (left) and then fold and pin. This way, after it's sewn you'll have a finished edge inside and not have to worry about serging or zig-zag stitches. The rest of the steps are the same.

Press the fold open, making sure you pull the leg of the pant taut so the contrast stitching shows. Flip it over and press from the right side to make sure you get a good crease.

Now we want to choose a thread color that matches the pant color as best as possible. Top stitch right along the seam we just made. I found after a washing, the extra fabric actually folds down and can peek out under the original hem. To avoid this, we'll just stitch it up so it stays out of sight. You can just leave it without the top stitching, or you could even match the color of the decorative stitching and make it look like a double needle has been used.

And with that you're all finished!
                                                                                                     

Before

After

Some background info for you!

Hi there, my name is Cynthia. I'm a seamstress. I started learning how to sew when I was about 9 or 10. My mother and all her sisters are very gifted seamstresses, thought only one of my aunts does it professionally. I didn't really get into making garments until high school when I also discovered my love of musical theater. I was in choir and madrigals all through high school and helped my mom make my costumes for all the plays I was in. After I left college (the music major I was trying for didn't work out) I applied at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and somehow they hired me with no experience. After a year and a half there, my knowledge and passion for creating garments had blossomed. While working there I was able to design, create, and see all my work up on stage in front of hundreds of people. Although I have since moved on, and am living in Vermont now, I still have that passion. I did the bridal/prom alterations for a while, and even worked at a drycleaner's doing tailoring and repairs. Right now I've changed course in my life. I'm raising a wonderful little girl with my husband, and I'm going back to finish my degree. This time I'm going for an English degree. I'd love to get a job teaching Home Economics to middle school or high school, but since so many counties have cut those programs, I'm willing to go with teaching English. 
On this blog I'll be posting tips and trials about sewing for yourself and others. It's a talent that I'm afraid has started to die out. I would get women coming in to have me fix a button. That's $5.00 for you to have someone else sew on a $.50 button. Even though the economy seems to be doing better, I feel the ability to at least repair your own clothes is very important. I'll try to break it down into easy to understand instructions on how to make simple garments and make more complicated repairs.  Feel free to ask me questions, send pictures, or even add your own tips on here.

Thanks for stopping by, and expect your first tip sometime this week!









This picture is one of my high school choir costumes that I made with my mom when I was 15. I actually still fit into it 12 years later!



Please note: 
All photos and writings on this blog are copyrighted by Cynthia Buckpitt, 2012.