Invisible zipper-bagging corners gives a nice finish at the top.  I actually prefer to put an invisible zipper in a garment, rather than a dress zip and I use my normal zipper foot.

Unpick the broken invisible zipper and pick off all the excess threads.  There are two things you need to do when unpicking.

How to bag top of invisible zip

1.  Unpick the seam a little bit more where the bottom of the zip was

2.  At the top of the zip opening, unpick any under stitching.  This is the stitching sewn after the outer and the facing or lining are joined together.  If there is topstitching unpick this as well.

Open out the zip and lay it flat with right side of zip facing right side of fabric.  Have the top of the zip lined up so that the beginning of the zip is in line with the top seam.  Pull the zip section back with your fingers, and sew next to the zipper teeth.  If you accidentally sew into the teeth, reverse, and come back down, and when finished at the end unpick the section where the teeth were sewn.

Sew as far as possibleto the bottom of the zip.  This will not be to the very end.  Do the zip up and pin it to the opposite side.  Make sure to line up the top and the bottom.  Have a look at the pinned section from the right side to see that it is pinned in correctly and there is no puckering at the bottom and that the top is in line with the opposite side of the zip.

Undo the zip and repeat the same process as the first side.  Do the zip up and stitch from the bottom seam sewing up and beside the zip to close the bottom.  Be sure to back tack here to make sure the stitching doesn’t come undone in the future.

Now to the top of the zip.  Bagging the top of an invisible zipper gives a good finish.  It doesn’t matter whether your garment has a facing or lining.  If you want it to sit properly and you had a dress zip in before, turn the garment inside out, and iron the facing back so it is right on the edge of the zipper.  It can be between the middle and the edge of the zipper.  Put the two right sides together and pin the facing with the ironed fold on the edge of the zipper.  The facing will seem like it does not fit perfectly.  There will be a gap at the top.  This is correct.  Sew the facing onto the edge of the zip.

Fold the zipper back so that it is sitting flat and sew across the top.  This is bagging the top of the zipper.  The gap is gone.  Repeat the same process on the other side.

Happy altering

Judith Turner