It is not hard to make your zipper line up! It looks so professional with seams on both sides of the zipper meet and everything looks perfect. Here is a trick to make that happen. You can repeat this for how ever many seams you have on either side of your zipper, you can even use this technique if you have designs on the sweater front you want to meet up, just pick something on the design and mark it on the zipper tape.
1) Take the front pieces where you will be installing the zipper and lay them flat on a surface so that the raw edges are facing each other. Line up all the seams that will need to be lined up when the zipper is installed.
2) Keeping the zipper zipped up, lay it down along the sweater where it will be sewn, right side down. (I realize my zipper is right side up but do what I say not what I do!) Line up the bottom of the zipper with the bottom of the sweater according to where you want it to be sewn. Mark on the zipper tape exactly where each seam from the sweater meets the zipper tape, make sure to mark it on both sides of the tape.
Zipper Tutorial II by Apple Dumpling Gear, on Flickr
3) Unzip the zipper and sew each side to the respective side of the sweater, right sides together, making sure to meet each marking from step #2 with it's respective seam.
Zipper Tutorial by Apple Dumpling Gear, on Flickr
4) Zip up the zipper and have a look to make sure that the seams line up on either side of the zipper. You can rip out the zipper and fix it if they don't - but if you followed your markings carefully it should be fine.
Zipper Tutorial III by Apple Dumpling Gear, on Flickr
5) Topstitch your zipper.
#23 Ottobre 4/08 "Risto" hooded sweat Jacket V by Apple Dumpling Gear, on Flickr
Enjoy your perfectly lined up zipper!!
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