Jackie Sports Bra Sew Along Week 5
My own Jackie bra is coming right along. Today I added band elastics to the bottom and trimmed up the armholes so I can use foldover elastics as my finish.
The first thing I did was pin the double layers securely at the hem, then overlocked the right side of the elastic to the right side of the bra, right on the edge. My seam allowance is only 3/8″ here, but because I am using a few non stretch panels, I decided not to trim anything off and attached right on the edge so the seam allowance would be 1/4″.
I then flipped the elastic to the backside and zigzagged the seam allowance down to the top of the elastic.
I didn’t want to finish my Jackie today since this sew along still has a few weeks, so I also decided to prep the armhole for fold over elastic. I pinned the double layers carefully and trimmed down the armhole the 3/8″ seam allowances.
I then overlocked the edges to keep them secured. I know I didn’t do much today, but I seriously have had no time to sew this past month. I am working on several projects at the moment.
I will be attaching the hook and eye next week and changing the back neckline to work with the hook and eye, then the last week of the sew along I will finish it up by adding fold over elastic to the armhole and then my strap.
For everyone else, this week is all about the zipper, how to shorten it and how to attach it.
Lets make our zipper shorter! We need to customize the length of our zippers. You will need an 8″ zipper for this task. And guess, what? I sourced all the zippers you will ever need for this.
Now, I recommend using a toothed zipper, meaning either a resin/plastic tooth or a metal tooth. I’m not sure how a metal tooth will do during workouts and outer clothing, so the recommendation is really the resin toothed zipper.
Coil zippers can split, no matter how heavy duty they are. Line up the zipper to the center front panel and add 3/4″ to the total zipper length.
You can then chop off the rest and remove the top 1/2″ of zipper teeth with pliers or cutters. You need to secure the top of the zipper. You can do this with hardware, or just wind thread between the top two remaining teeth at the top until it becomes bulky enough to stop the zipper from coming off.
This video can walk you through this process.
Attaching the Zipper
Attaching the zipper isn’t very complicated, but you need to have a zipper foot handy. This is one of the shortest video in the series, so I will let the video do the demonstrating for you.
