knitting is a hereditary disease

Installing a zipper

Posted on 01/16/2008 by Barb | Comments (6)
Filed under : Finished Objects, Knitting, Spinning, Tips

I recently added a zipper to a sweater and people asked how I got it in straight, without having it look all "ruffly."

It's pretty simple. In addition to a sewing machine, your garment and the zipper, you'll need a sheet or two of white tissue paper.

This technique works for all sorts of finicky fabrics ...

Here I'm putting an open-end zipper in the front of a sweater. First, carefully block the sweater, making sure both edges for the zipper are the same length, that they're straight and any stripes or patterns line up left to right.

I generally leave the zipper zipped when I do all this, but if it's easier for you to take the two halves apart, that works, too.

Position the first side of your zipper along the edge of the sweater as shown, and pin it in place. Then lay a sheet of thin tissue paper over it. The tissue paper permits the sewing machine foot to glide over the knitting without pulling at or catching on the yarn. With the tissue side up, carefully stitch through tissue, sweater and zipper, making your row of stitches far enough back from the teeth so the zipper pull will be able to move freely along teeth without any yarn catching in it. It's pretty easy to see what you're doing right through the tissue paper.

Then carefully tear the perforated tissue paper away and remove the pins. Repeat for the second side of the zipper.

Photo by Andrea

That's all there is to it. When you're finished, you'll want to give it a good blocking, of course.

I just grabbed a bit of scrap yarn and tied it to the zipper pull on this sweater, but it's fun to find an interesting bead or bauble to dress it up. I'm keeping my eyes open for just the right thing!

6 Comments

Beautiful sweater! (What's that yarn???) Very good technique tip, thank you.

- said Miss T (01/16/2008, 2:23 PM)

Thank you, Miss T! The short answer: My handspun.

While sale shopping, I ran across two different merino and silk rovings. There wasn't a lot of either, but I felt I could combine them and end up with enough total yardage for a sweater. The fiber from the pink roving was used "pure" for some of the yarn, then I used the remaining in various combinations with the second, mostly white and blue, multicolor roving to produce basically two additional distinct yarns. Using the three yarns, I was able to produce the subtle striping.

This is my own pattern, which I am in the process of writing up and posting in our DIY section.

- said Barb (01/16/2008, 2:23 PM)

OOOo, thanks for sharing that. Zips give me the devil of a time trying to get them in nicely.Your sweater looks beautiful.

- said olga (01/16/2008, 2:23 PM)

Thank you, Olga. I used to avoid zippers but don't mind them so much now that I've learned the tissue paper trick.

- said Barb (01/16/2008, 2:23 PM)

Pretty sweater. I love the colors.

- said Sarah R (01/16/2008, 2:23 PM)

Thank you, Sarah.

- said Barb (01/16/2008, 2:23 PM)