The Chair Makeover - How to insert an invisible zip

The chair makeover is finally complete!

Today I inserted the invisible zip, added the ties & sewed it all together.

To see the other posts relating to the making of the piping & selvedge fabric - see here, here & here.

I'm over the moon with the result.

Here is my tutorial on how to insert an invisible zip

Open your zip and iron flat the teeth that are curled over. This helps you get nice & close to the edge when sewing. Buy a longer size zip than you need - this was my mistake, mine was way to short.

Measure and mark the start and where you want the finish of your zip to be.

Copy these markings onto your top piece of fabric so you will know where to match them up.

  

  

Pin the open zipper into place

Add your zip foot attachment to your machine and sew as close to the piping as you can without sewing the zipper teeth. Stop at your finishing marker. (It has to be before the zip head as you cannot sew around it)

It should look something like this

Pin open zip to your 2nd piece of fabric. Again sew as close to the teeth as possible.

To finish off the end of zip.  You need to find the groove between the piping and zip.

Pin and mark this groove. This is where you will start to sew when sewing the whole cushion together.

Pin ties where you would like them to go and poke them into the centre between the top & bottom fabric out of the way so they don't get caught in the seam anywhere.

Place your 2nd fabric over the other and pin and whole way around. Sew together, slowly feeling your way along for the piping.  You will need to get as close as you can without sewing over the top.

Trim corners and any other bits that are poking out. Insert your cushion filling.

Your invisible zip will look like this!

Thank you for your patience with this makeover during the last week of posts, there has been a lot of different processes to work through but I hope you have picked up some valuable tips along the way.