I know, I know. You were expecting Linky Thursday. There were so many fabulous things going on the blog this week (did you see the Felt Friends book giveaway and the metal zipper tutorial?) that it was time to catch up with some Ziggi sew-along posts. I promise, next week will be back to ‘normal’! So, about that Ziggi! If you haven’t attached the (mid) front and back pieces together at the sides, now is the time to do it.  Be sure that you are only sewing the side and not the shoulders – this is where the yolk will be eventually sewn connecting the front and back together (I’m holding my jacket up by clips so you can see what we have so far).  If you want to top stitch this area, go ahead and do this now – I left this area free from stitching only because a lot of my ready-to-wear jacket tend not to topstitch the side seams.  Hmmm, I wonder why?). Next grab your Front Jacket pieces.

Here is where I deviated from the instructions (again). I have to admit, I just didn’t like the way they have you inserting the zipper – it seems unnecessarily difficult and isn’t typically a method that I’ve used for other jackets. Here’s what I did: First, I worked from the left side of the jacket: I placed my shortened zipper with the bottom stop at the bottom mark (or bottom hem depending on how your zipper was shortened) RIGHT SIDE DOWN on the mid front section (where the hem is indicated). If you shortened your zipper, the top stop of the zipper should end at the top hash mark of the jacket mid front and pinclip in place (Photo1). Fold the excess zipper tape away from the jacket (toward the raw edge) – this will create a nice finished to your zipper when everything is sewn together. Now place your front jacket piece on top of your mid jacket section, matching the notches and sandwiching your zipper in between it all and pin in place (the jacket front is pulled back in Photo 2 to show you how the the zipper is sandwiched in between the layers).

Using your zipper foot, sew the left side of the jacket together. Press your seam open toward the mid-front section of your jacket. This will ‘turn’ the zipper so that the right side is exposed and allow you to top stitch this section of the jacket if desired (it will also help hold the zipper in position).

The right side is much easier. Match the notches of the right front to the right mid-front section of the jacket and sew. Press your seam toward the right mid front and topstitch if desired. If you haven’t already, remove the other half of your zipper from the left side of the jacket (I like to keep mine together when I sewed the left side of the jacket because things have a tendency to ‘walk off’ in my sewing room). Place the edge of the zipper RIGHT SIDE DOWN on the (right-side) right front section of the jacket. The end of the zipper should be aligned with the bottom hash mark (or the bottom hem depending on how your zipper was shortened) and the zipper stop at the top has mark. Fold over your excess zipper tape toward the raw edge and stitch the zipper in place using your zipper foot. Do not fold over your zipper and top stitch  – we’ll be attaching the facings very soon and will tackle that next!

Whew! The front is almost finished! Don’t forget to post your progress photos in the Flickr group and show off your work so far!