Wool Cycling Jersey: Adding a Zipper

Step 2 Pin the Zipper

The trick to successfully adding a zipper to wool is to first secure it as much as possible with pins and basting stitches before the completing the edge stitch with your zipper foot. Also, we have to do this before cutting the sweater or else it will start to unravel.

Again, with the sweater laid flat and right side out, lay the zipper over the chalk line right side up as well. Following the first illustration, unzip the zipper part-way and flip the two sides open like a book. The teeth of both ends should be opposite each other and should face down towards the sweater.

Begin by aligning the zipper stops with the collar and insert pins horizontally along the tape to secure. In making this Instructable I neglected to leave a void at the termination of the zipper to account for the extra width of the exposed zipper teeth. This caused a slight gathering of the wool. As illustrated with the red shading, pin the zipper sides at least 4mm apart at the 12 inch mark to account for the zipper width. A trick to inserting pins without also pinning down the back layer of the sweater is to stick a thin book or quilting ruler in between the layers to guide the pin back up.