Trousers with zippered ankles are becoming hugely trendy yet again and becoming hard not to spot at every fast-fashion store. The adjustable split hem on pants is an awesome feature for showing off some ankle booties or making those drainpipe jeans easier to pull past your feet! This week we basically show you how easy it can be to install a zipper into the seam of your pants. So dig deep in your closet and revive that pair that you’ve had at the bottom of the pile for a few seasons now! Here’s the step-by-step:
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- pants with a side seam
- two zippers
- seam ripper
- scissors
- glue stick
- sewing machine with zipper foot (not shown)
- iron
TUTORIAL:
[ DROP HEM ] – Start by using a seam ripper to drop your hem on each pant leg. Rip out all the thhreads so the hem is no longer sewn up!
[ FIX SEAM ] – An essential part of installing the zipper is making sure that your seam is properly sewn. Ideally, you need your two meeting fabrics to be finished individually (either serged or zigzag stitched so that the fabric will not fray) and then sewn along the seam with a straight stitch. Luckily, I had previously altered these pants, so the seam was perfect for putting a zipper in. If your pants are not finished in this way, simply seam rip the entire side and then refinish by serging each fabric and sewing them together face to face.
[ GLUE ZIPPER ] – Using a normal glue stick or a fabric adhesive stick, apply some to both sides of the zipper, avoiding the zipper teeth.
[ IRON ZIPPER ] – Carefully position the zipper onto your spread out seam. Make sure that the teeth are perfectly centered on the seam and then iron the zipper into place. The glue acts like a light adhesive so you don’t have to use any pins!
[ FLIP & SEW ] – Flip your pants right-side-out. Using a zipper foot on your sewing machine, sew around the entire zipper (along both sides and at the top). If you are sewing the zipper onto some skinny pants, you may need to rip out the inside seam of the pants so that you can actually sew the zipper without fabric getting in the way. As soon as you finish sewing the zipper on, you can sew up the inside seam again.
[ REMOVE SEAM ] – Now your zipper is sewn in perfectly, you just need to remove the seam in the center. Use the seam ripper to carefully undo the stitches, revealing your zipper teeth!
[ HEM ] – Finally, hem the bottom of your pants back up and you’re done!
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Thanks for reading! Are you gonna try this DIY? Tweet us a photo @everybodyisugly
by Sylvia of lipglossandblack
Images by Syl and Sam, Céline Runway Photos from Style.com
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