Invisible Zipper Mistakes

When it comes to sewing, I'm like the ill-behaved child who does things wrong but never learns a lesson from it. You could beat on me, put me in time-out, take away my favorite toy -- and I would repeat my bad behavior again and again.

Take invisible zippers, for example. Take a look at the "invisible" zipper I installed on a pillow last year:

But Ashley, you're thinking, I can totally see that zipper. It's not invisible.

No kidding. But that was a pillow on my couch that I drool on, so who cares? When it came time to install the same zipper on a dress, I really had to get my act together.

I'm working on this Peony dress in owl fabric. I love it, and I want to wear it. So I gotta do this thing right the first time.

I used the Colette Patterns invisible zipper tutorial to help me along. Important lesson: don't skip steps. I know you want to breeze through it so you can watch the Being Elmo documentary on Netflix. But you don't wanna go down that road.

First important invisible zipper step: Iron those zipper teeth. Really push them out of the way.

I originally tried installing the zipper with my regular zipper foot. Slap me on the wrist, because that was a waste of time. I broke down and ordered an invisible zipper foot ($30?! $30 for a little piece of metal?). Look at the difference with those straight stitch seams. One seam is from my regular zipper foot and the other was using the invisible foot. It's quite a difference.

You really gotta roll those teeth back to get in that little ditch with your sewing machine needle.

Sewing with the correct zipper foot:

The dress zipper looks ten times better than the pillow zipper. It's puckering a little, but I'm proud. I think this mean kid finally learned her lesson.

Do you ever skip steps and then regret it? Surely I'm not alone in this. Share an example, and I promise not to slap your wrist.