Starting with a zipper the same length as your longarm leaders. I marked the center of the zipper with a line and the number "0" and then made dots for each inch and a line for each 5" increment. Is this really necessary? Maybe not. Mostly, I don't look at those numbers, but every once in a while I'm glad for them.
I center the zipper on the leader, matching the center points.
I have the zipper pinned with the pull tab on top which puts my markings showing on the top.
The longarm leaders are lined up flush against the back of the zipper teeth on the underside.
Carefully zip it together. All your dots should line up.
Using the longarm, sew the zipper to the leader, removing the pins as you go.
All the way down and all the way back. Not sure if that was the best way, but it worked.
Next was to make some zipper leaders to baste the quilt back to. The fabric I used was a cotton, thicker than normal quilters cotton, but not as thick as the canvas. I feel it was a good choice because that leader gets extra pulling on it when you rip the basting out time after time. Again I lined up the center points of the fabric leader and sewed. I'm not sure why I did it with the zipper facing down, but maybe it was so I could see the writing I did on the other side.
I labeled the zipper leaders (yes, the top of the quilt back should be on the bottom of the zipper) and marked my zippers the same way as above. The first time I used them, I realized that the pattern on the leaders was facing down. Oh, no! But then I realized that it actually makes it easier when I'm sewing the back to the zipper leaders. The right sides of the zipper leaders and the right side of the back should be facing down, so I can match the direction to help me remember which way to sew the back on.
I have made several of these and used different colored fabric pens to make sure I had the matching pair together. I'm not sure it was necessary, but it made me feel better to do it that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment