HOW TO INSTALL AN INVISIBLE ZIPPER IN

A LINED DRESS
NOVEMBER 27, 2013 BY GIRLINSPIRED 21 COMMENTS
How is your holiday sewing coming along? Are you making dresses for your little
ones? I shared Addison’s Christmas dress a couple weeks ago and I’ll be sharing
the other girls’ dresses on Friday, along with a coupon code for an AWESOME sale
on the 5&10 Designs Volume 1 eBook. ALSO….we’re providing a FREE sleeve
pattern that can be added to most of the dresses in the pattern book. Pretty exciting
stuff! Be sure you stop in Friday! Here’s a sneaky peek of one of my dresses….
Today, I want to show you how to install an invisible zipper on a lined
dress. Sometimes I prefer the look of an invisible zipper over button closures,
particularly on fancier dresses. An invisible zipper on a lined garment is not so
complicated to install and I’ll walk you through it step by step. The zipper will be the
final step when you are sewing your dress. If you are using the 5&10 basic bodice
block pattern, you will add only a 1/2″ to the pattern piece at the center back for a
seam allowance – you do not need any extra for “overlap” where you’d otherwise be
sewing buttons – make sense? When completing the dress assembly steps, be sure
you do not sew any seams into the open sides/the center of the back bodice
pieces. The lining and the main fabric should be separate, connecting only along the
neck seam. You will also want to attach your main skirt to the main bodice and your
skirt lining to the bodice lining. The back will be open from the neck all the way down
to the hem.
Now, for the zipper. Remove the zipper from the packaging and set it out along the
back of the dress to help visualize the orientation of the zipper relative to the
dress. Unzip the zipper and press it with your iron along the teeth to flatten it
out. This step is really important to make sure you can stitch close to the teeth, but
not through them – don’t skip the ironing of the zipper!!!
Now, take your zipper and turn it upside down. Separate the main dress from the
lining. Place the raw edge of the left-hand side (the right-side now that the zipper is
face down) along the raw edge of the left back bodice piece.
Pin in place, lining up the zipper stop with the neck seam where the main bodice
piece meets the lining. There is a small tab of zipper above the plastic stop piece –
that can flap above the stitch line for now – you can fold it away from the zipper edge
and trim it down. Be sure to pin the zipper to the main bodice only, NOT TO THE
LINING.
Using a zipper foot on your sewing machine, baste the zipper to the bodice,
continuing down at least an inch or two below the waist seam. You may need to
remove the garment from your machine, pull up the zipper tab past your stitching,
and then continue sewing the rest of the zipper on.
Now that the zipper is basted in place, fold the lining down over the zipper – the right
side of the lining will be touching the zipper and the right side of the bodice. Use the
zipper foot and stitch the lining down to encase the zipper between the bodice and
the lining.
Stitch as close as you can to the zipper teeth without stitching through them. I like to
move my needle over just slightly to get as close as possible.
Turn the bodice right side out and check the zipper to make sure it zips up
completely and is facing the right direction. Remember when you laid the loose
zipper on the back of the dress – is the correct side of the zipper attached where it
should be? Best to remove stitches and fix it at this point than wait until you’ve sewn
in the whole thing.
Now, we’re going to repeat the process with the other side of the zipper. Separate
the right side of the bodice from the lining and place the other side of the zipper right
side down onto the bodice. Be sure the zipper is rotated correctly and not
twisted. Check the close-up picture below – does yours look the same?

Now, repeat the same process of basting the zipper into place, turning down the
lining, and stitching the back bodice, zipper, and lining together.
Check your zipper – doesn’t it look awesome?? Now to finish the dress, you’ll need
to sew up the back seams of the skirt and the skirt lining. Do these separately and
stitch right up until you meet the stitching for the zipper installation. This process
gets a little crowded, but just go slow and when you’re done, everything will be
contained and look nice and neat.