Third Time Lucky

I finished my Ribby Cardi! Here's the tale of how I put in the zipper:

Oh dear. Zipper is too long.



Ignore the online instructions I found saying to pull the teeth off the band individually with a pair of pliers (shades of the Spanish Inquisition?). This just results in a twisted, tangled mess.



Cut off the excess instead, and put in a bar tack to stop the zip flying off the end. Baste the fronts together.



Pin in the zip.



Sew in the zip. No. Wait. Negotiating pins with the sewing machine is hard. Zip is not nice to look at. Seam is puckered and wonky. Unpick zip.

Repeat from "baste the fronts together" above. Zip is still not nice to look at. Go to bed, grumbling, but consider cardi done.

Wake up next day. New dawn, new day. Determined to make cardi look pretty. Come home from work, unpick ratty zip (no, I am not going to post a photo of it, I didn't take one!) start over from basting the fronts together. Only this time we have learnt something. Add final step before sewing in zip: tack zip in place. Then sew.

Voila. Pretty zip, finished cardi, happy Della.



I will try to get some action shots at the weekend. Until then, I am happy, happy, happy!

And if you want to know the proper way to do it, have a look at Bonne Marie's excellent instructions!

Some of us learn more quickly than others.

P.S. If I have to do this again I will put in the zip before I sew the fronts to the body. Makes life a lot easier not having to wrangle all that bulk under the sewing machine.