I am needing to sew a zipper (five feet in length, for the entry to a tent) along a curve (radiused might be a term that is used), and am wondering about a few points.
I am planning to cut out the curve in the intact piece of fabric, and then fold over each edge of the curve (like a hem) so it will be doubled over where it is sewn to the zipper. Because it is on a curve, should I cut a short slit every inch or two in order to facilitate the doubling over process (so it doesn't gather all up on me)?
I hope that made sense. Any other suggestions would be most appreciated.
The technique is detailed in the book "sew and repair your outdoor gear" by Louise Lindgren Sumner. What ever you do, do NOT clip your curve. You need to manage the ease through easing. Any other advice here you get will be wrong - I've been working on tents professionally for many, many years.
You might like the gear maker's discussion board at
formatting link
You will need to register to see it, but it is a great board for the do it yourselfer for outdoor gear.
NO! Don't clip that curve - you need all the strength you can get for durability on a tent. Ease it in: make little tucks on the inner curve if you really must, but easing is best. Modern nylon tent fabrics are nice and light weight, and the tiny tucks won't hold you up as you sew.
And fold it over once: you shouldn't need to fold over twice, and it will just increase the problems. Last tent zips I did (eight foot long zips on the Scouts loo tents!), I sewed two lines of stitching up each side of the zip - it was nice wide heavy duty plastic zip by the mile. If the fabric looks like fraying, you might want to overlock/serge those cut edges.
Thanks Kate, and SmallChange too; I won't cut the slits.
One question I have though, is what is this "easing" that you refer to? I'm a noobie at sewing, and don't know what this means. Any good explanation or website with pictures demonstrating the technique?
everyone but Kate.;-) The trick is that your zipper is wide enough to make your opening have two curves of unequal length. One long, one short, with the zipper being a length that is halfway between the two. You will have excess ease on one side of the curve, not enough on the other. The book I recommended has a very good technique for marking the curve and managing the easer.
Easing is where you make a slightly longer bit of fabric/turning fit a slightly shorter bit, or where you make a convex curve fit a concave one... You 'ease' the longer bit of fabric in rather than gathering, tucking, or pleating it.
"ease: mean excess fabric. I'd like to gently suggest that if you do not understand the concept of ease that a) you really need to look up that book and b) this project could be way over your head.
here's the technique, in detail If you can find a copy of the old classic, Sew and Repair Outdoor Gear by Louise Lindgren, I got this (lifesaving) technique out of there. Now, to see if I can describe this simply...
Imagine a curved line on a piece of fabric, like you would draw with a marker. If you cut on this line, either "side" of the line is the same length. Now, if you imagine a wide curved line ( like a curved bar) , and that you cut on the outside and inside of, you will now have curves of two different lengths.
Think about your zipper tape. The coil itself is around 1/4 to 3/8 wide, plus the space you have for the slider to run. So, the outsider curve that the zipper gets sewn onto is a lot longer than the inside curve, which is going to be shorter. The length of the zipper tape is constant.
So here's the problem to solve. On the longer side (outside) of the curve, your zipper tape will be too shot and you have to deal with the negative ease of the tape, or too much ease on the tent if that makes sense. On the shorter side (inside) of the curve, you have too much zipper tape and not enough door fabric.
Here's what I go to deal with all of this. If at all possible I zip the zipper closed ( usually one slider is functioning) or mostly closed and start marking. I make pairs of opposing hatch marks on the tent fabric first. You can do halves, quarter, if you want. I will do the center and quarter marks, and every 10" or so on top of it. You might want to use a combination of different kinds of mark to keep track of them. These marks will help you to manage the ease when you put the new zipper in. If the zipper is not functioning at all you kind of have to wing this step, probably by dividing the doors into halves, quarters etc.
Now take the old zipper off, cut your new one to length, maybe add just an inch or two for fudge factor. Mark center and quarter points on BOTH HALVES of the zipper tape. Be sure to not include the ends that get sewn in, in your measurement.
At this stage, I will pin the whole zipper to one side of the door, doesn't matter which side, making sure I match centers and quarters. Then, I separate the coils, and do the same to the other side. You haven't sewn anything yet.
Now, put the sliders on. Your hatch marks on the zipper tape should line up. If they don't you have screwed up somewhere. Next, use pins in the zipper tape to match up all the opposing tent door hatch marks on the tent fabric. Then, start handling the ease with additional pins if necessary. Check your work by zipping the tape closed. The zipper tape might want to curl on one side but when you sew it that will make it go flat.
Finally, once it's pinned in satisfactorily, sew it on. I'd do one single row of stitching on each side first, and then once you know it's right do a second row. Secure the ends last. If you have done it right, you will have a nice curved tent zipper.
Wow, thanks a TON for that, SmallChange! I'm not much of a "book" person, and you are right, I'm way over my head, but that's never stopped me before. :) BTW, this is the last thing to do on my tent (of my own design) , which was my first sewing project ever, so it's too late to warn me now anyway. :)
Your idea of using hatch marks sounds like a great idea, and will give me a reference point from which to work - I'll put them in before I cut the curve for the zipper. Since I've got a black zipper, I'll pick up some type of white marker for that.
Thanks again for taking the time with all of that information; it makes perfect sense, and is greatly appreciated
"Jon Danniken" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net...
You are welcome. It's not an original idea just a sugestion from some one on this group ages ago. I love using soap to mark sewing 'cos it's washes out so well.
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.