This is what I do...maybe it will help some of you...
First I pin the zipper to the fronts of the cardigan. (Keep the zipper closed) Then I make sure I can open and close it and maybe even try it on.
Now I baste the zipper in place. (hand sew long stitches that you can easily remove...basically it does the same thing as the pins.) This way you don't have to deal with the pins as you sew it in.
Now I sew the outter edge of the zipper to the inside. I usually line it up with a column of stitches and then stick to that same column all the way up.
Turn it right side out and sew up the center of the zipper. Be sure you don't go too close to the zipper teeth...you want to make sure the zipper will actually work!
And voila...the zipper is in. (you can now pull out your basted stitches if you like)
I have had much success at sewing in zipper by machine on dresses...but I have yet to put my knitting under a zipper foot...fear, it's just pure fear people.
8 comments:
great tutorial :) I only hand-sew my zippers too. I have installed zippers via sewing machine and it was a disaster - the pressure from the presser foot stretched out the knitted fabric so that the zipper ended up being too short. Many a rip-out has occurred (and ripping out sewn stitched ain't as easy as ripping out knit stitches!!)
thanks for the tutorial. fear motivated me to turn to my local seamstress and she magically ( and effortlessly, I might add!) did it in no time at all! you just have to know how.
That's similar to what I do too, but I dared to use the machine. It took only two tries, but I think it worked great. I used the tutorial at http://www.chicknits.com//ttizipper.shtml.
Thanks so much! I'm about to install my first zipper ever into a sweater for my husband, so now I won't be so fearful about it.
I recently used my sewing machine to sew ribbon in a cardigan and to make buttonholes and it worked out pretty well. It was a little scary feeding my handknit cardigan through the sewing machine though! I love the colour of your Olive.
Thanks for the tutorial! I have shied away from sweaters with zips, but now I might give them another look. Now Olive will likely get lots of wear!
I knitted Olive last Winter in Dolly Maxi(Olive)exact as the pattern in book.I bought my zipper YKK#3 open ended from Zipperstop in NY (I live in Australia as it was here in 4 days!!).This was my first zipper installation. I pinned it tightly and sewed it in using the sewing machine, knitted side up and just eased it slowly, then turned olive over and slip stitched zipper fabric edges down - result was perfect and neat. Hope this helps.
I have not tried to put a zipper into a knitted sweater by sewing machine myself. But if I ever was going to try it I would put my 'walking foot' on the sewing machine. It is a special foot used when quilting the layers of a quilt together. I think it might help the 'stretching out problem -while sewing'
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