Does anyone know where to find a tutorial on how to insert a zipper into a tee shirt which has NO seam?I have experimented with several ideas on how to do this ,using a zipper & scrap fabric but success has eluded me.I can do a opening, suitable for buttons & buttonholes but it doesn't work for a zip.I have seen plenty of tops & sloppy joes in the shops with zips inserted this way.All suggestions gratefully accepted.

I have put zippers in sweatshirts that were just pullovers. Turn shirt to the inside . First I find the center of the shirt and mark it with chalk . 2nd cut a piece of soft fusible web the length you want and about 3 or 4 inches wide and fuse to inside of shirt with the chalk line going down the center. 3rd cut on the chalk line. 4th turn in about 5/8 on each side and baste zipper in then sew in.You can make the one side a little wider to hide your zipper. I hope this helps .

Another hmmmm...are you wanting to insert a zipper up the front from top to bottom to make the T more like a "jacket"...or are you looking to insert a zipper somewhere like for a pocket...or ???

2 comments

by killiecrankie 11 Jun 2014

A lot of sloppy joe tops do the zips this way unless an open end zip is used.

by dragonflyer 11 Jun 2014

hmmm...don't know what a sloppy joe is...think I will Google it.

What a cool idea. Many women going through breast cancer surgery would appreciate having t-shirts that zip up. Thanks!!!

Go to youtube.com. ON the search link type in:put zipper into t-shirt. I got 5-6 choices of videos to watch.

1 comment

by killiecrankie 11 Jun 2014

Thank you .The one I was interested had its sound muted because of copyright infringements, but you could still follow how it was done.What I really wanted to do ,was to have the zipper so there was a facing covering the back of the zipper (no zipper tape visible)

hmmmm...not sure where on the shirt or why..but I'm thinking something like a set in pocket...where you cut through the fabric and face the underside...after that, you could stitch in the zipper and it would be supported...haven't tried it, but it might be worth a try om some scrap T-shirt fabric...

1 comment

by killiecrankie 11 Jun 2014

I was hoping to find away ,that avoided cutting the fabric until after the zip was sewn in, just like you do when making a placket.

Not sure why you'd want to do this, as the joy of t-shirts is being able to pull it on over your head without worrying about zips :) However, I wonder if you first applied the zip to a (neatened/hemmed) rectangle of fabric and then just apply that fabric to the t-shirt -a bit like a placket on a polo top? My other suggestion would be to iron on some stabiliser to the back of where you want to apply the zip to get the stretch out of the picture. Best of luck with this. I hope you let us know how you get on with it.

1 comment

by killiecrankie 11 Jun 2014

I will ,thank you