Vogue 1252 - Finally the dreaded zipper

After more hand finished details and some more tweaking, I am very happy with the way this has turned out.  It looks better on the body than the dress form.

THE ZIPPER

This is zipper number 2....

It turns out that Joann's does not carry a 25" zipper, so I had to make due with a 22".  After hand picking the  zipper into the back, I really did not like the way it looked.  Let's overlook the basting stitches, the ruching actually pulls away from the center back exposing more of the zipper, and that does not look good.

Now the pattern instructions call for sewing in the zipper 1/8" from the edge of the center back, which means over the ruching.  This fabric is so soft, I had no confidence that it was going to feed properly and I wouldn't be faced with picking out all of the stitching later, and maybe even leaving holes in the fabric, so I decided that this might be the way to go.  Something to take the pressure off of those points that were the most bulky and pulled away the most from the center back.

This didn't look too bad, but I found it was nearly impossible to get those hooks latched on my own once I was in the dress......and then there was that gap at the top .... grrr.

 The pattern just calls for a 20" zipper, it didn't specify invisible, so after much pondering, I tried to slip the dress on with the zipper closed.  So another hour and the zipper was eliminated altogether.  It's a little tight around the elastic waist, but I think it looks much better.

Next.... is an OOP Givenchy jacket, let's hope the muslin doesn't get in the way of my making it.