Sewing: Zip yo' lip, girl!

My sisters can attest to the fact that I was a bit lippy when I was younger and my step-dad's favorite phrase was, "zip yo' lip!"  Sometimes in jest but most of the time not...I don't think I ever really learned my lesson...

Anyway, anyone ever started a hobby and then got to the point where you knew you should be taking bigger steps but were scared?  Join my club.  My fear came in the form of two rows of teeth neatly fitted together, ranging from 7 to 22 inches and a wide array of colors. 

The zipper.

Since the beginning of the year, I have been determined to sew in a zipper.  But scared as I was the closest I would get to even TOUCHING a zipper was buying them on sale and stashing them away telling myself, "someday soon, someday soon".  Every time I'd open my sewing drawer, there they would lay gritting their surly teeth at me.  But I would quickly slam the drawer and find something else to do so  I could forget about them.

But today, was the day.  Don't ask me why.  The weather was bad, the sun didn't shine ONCE and I never left the house.  So, it wasn't like there was a gorgeous day with that magical sunshine beaming through my windows inspiring me to be brave or anything.  No.  Today was just normal.

 

So, I pulled out some fabric that I bought on sale months ago (hoping to make myself a skirt...with a zipper.  Never did.) and set to work.  Not without interruptions though.  Because it wouldn't be a challenge without a few hiccups, right?

My baby girl was so, so grumpy today.  She is still sick and very clingy.  She sat on my lap and cried.

And cried...but it was so cute.

But I finally got her to bed and dug back into my very scary zipper.

Until I realized that I need to be sewing all of my seams at 5/8.  And I wasn't.  Seam ripper to the rescue.  

(if you look closely you can see the two seams.  I had to rip out the outer seam)

Then it came time for the zipper and I was nervous.  I pulled out the zipper foot and fumbled around.

Pinned my zipper down and set to sewing.  And it worked!!  It seriously, seriously sewed right into place.  Like magic.  Wow, following the directions makes things so much easier.

And I really like my skirt.

Fits great and I can't wait to wear it in public.  I'm going to sew another skirt with another zipper on another day.

Zip-i-dee-do-da, zip-i-dee-ay!