Comments on: Lapped zipper specs

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 01:10:41 +0000

Thanks so much for the tutorial on the lapped zipper application. I did add a lining and had 0 zero seam allowance on the left side until the bottom of the zipper stop. Then became 3/8 inch. I think I wack the zipper a tad too much ..metal was smashed!! But the whole sample came out very nice….I would appreciate your feedback on some issues I came across. These are some of my questions.
1) When top-stitching the facings away from body do you topstitch all the way done the lining?
2) Not sure what to do with the small 3 side square that formed at bottom of zipper? This was on the lining.
3)At the end how much should you topstitch the zipper on the left side of the shell, the right side seems to be easier to do?

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:17:35 +0000

thanks for confirming Kathleen!

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:05:56 +0000

For a fully lined dress with a lapped zipper, would I use the same seam allowances for the lining patterns as for the facings, i.e. left back lining as 0 and the right back lining as 1/2″? I can’t quite figure out in my head how to draft the left back lining.. Would it step from zero to 3/8″ at the end of the zip?

Yep, and you’d end up with a jog (forming a square opening) at the zipper end. Make sure you leave the box end long enough to finish it off (flip it up). Do a sample and you’ll see what I mean.

By: Sara

Sara — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:18:22 +0000

For a fully lined dress with a lapped zipper, would I use the same seam allowances for the lining patterns as for the facings, i.e. left back lining as 0 and the right back lining as 1/2″? I can’t quite figure out in my head how to draft the left back lining.. Would it step from zero to 3/8″ at the end of the zip?

By: Jinjer Markley

Jinjer Markley — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:36:32 +0000

Q:
I’m assuming your seam allowances require some standard zipper tape width. In my own attempts to figure out how to sew a zipper in well (I opened up a thrift store garment that looked particularly good), I did figure out that the seam allowances of a centered zip had to be exactly 1/2 the width of the zipper plus a bit ( ~1/16″ usually works for me) to go over the coils. So I started measuring zippers and did NOT find them to be standard. They seem to range from 3/8″ to 3/4.” what gives?

I never did figure out lapped zipper (honestly, the off-centeredness of the topstitcng bugs my eye.)

Sort of on this topic. As a beginning sewing instructor, I’ve figured out why the home sewing method is the way it is: Beginning sewers can’t sew straight, sew dot-to-dot, keep layers perfectly aligned, or prevent the fabric from getting eased to the zipper (especially without interfacing. Note that most interfacing available to the home market SUCKS. If I were writing home-sewing patterns, I would avoid it, too). Sew, the home-sewing method at least up the chances that the zipper gets in sorta correctly.

And I would have included myself in the beginner sewer category for my first 10 years sewing (I’m on year 12 now. Currently, I’m intermediate.). How are you going to get people in sewing classes if you tell them they’ll suck for another 8 years??

On refrigerators–I have heard that new fridges are more energy efficient, and pay you back in electricity bills pretty quick. My (2 person) household only has a minifridge. everyone said we were nuts and that we’d miss the fridge space, but we don’t,
hah! Minifridges are very cheap. Of course we are very blessed with an abundance of farmer’s markets, plus Berkeley Bowl (if anyone ever visits me in Oakland, I’ll take you. It’s a grocery store, but it might as well be an entertainment venue!).

By: kathleen

kathleen — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 08:13:05 +0000

I’d already pulled this thing back from the wall a couple of months ago to clean it out because of the change in the noise of it. While it sounded a little better, it still sounded off so I’d been expecting for something to happen with the thing at any time. I like that about machines. Unlike people, they’ll usually give you a heads-up when they’re not happy.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 22:39:23 +0000

Once upon a time we had a fridge that wouldn’t keep things frozen or very cold, and it turned out that the coils were just so dusty/dirty they couldn’t conduct heat/cold properly, and a good thorough cleaning with a brush got it back to good as new.

By: kathleen

kathleen — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 17:29:55 +0000

It turns out, the fan cooling the compressor was on the fritz and only running intermittedly which is why I didn’t know what the problem was at the outset (read: the latter is my “excuse”, lol). The fan was 67 bucks -wholesale! good grief! I couldn’t believe it; for a little motor, 3″ fan blades and scraps of cut -and unburnished- sheet metal for the mounting frame, it cost that much. Well, it’s running great now and I didn’t lose much in the way of spoiled foods. It was one of those times that I was glad to be a vegetarian .

By: kathleen

kathleen — Fri, 27 May 2005 03:50:43 +0000

I can’t figure it out; the freezer (top) is barely keeping ice cubes solid and the lower portion is too warm to keep milk cold (but the butter is solid) so it should be a defrost timer issue. The thing is, the freezer compartment is NOT iced over, so it can’t be. It has me confused so I’m starting to wonder whether this unit (Kenmore Coldpoint, manuf date of 09/99) would have a timer on the heater. Or do all of them have a timer on the heater but I just haven’t figured it out yet?

By: Tom Willmon

Tom Willmon — Thu, 26 May 2005 16:16:09 +0000

My reefer died a few months ago and I replaced it with a good, used reefer/freezer from a local peddler for $75 delivered.

You may not like current new prices…

Good luck with troubleshooting and repairing as first line of defense. I agree with suspecting defrost timer.

Tom
(recovering engineer)