Improving baby clothes (Zip to butt of overalls)

So I got a huge bunch of second hand clothes which I love. packed most of them away for Lars in size order. One adorable little set of overalls was in there, but to change a nappy (diaper) you would have to remove the whole item of clothing! I love ya little guy, but we aren't doing that.

So of course, like any sewing addict, I fixed it ...using a $3 zipper!

Here's how...
Buy a zip that goes the length of the gusset from foot to foot. This will depend on the size of the clothing so I just took my article to the shop with me. Helped match colour as well.
Not that it helped that much, I would recommend a jacket zipper which is "open ended" so you can open up the whole bottom of the overalls, but my local Spotlight is crap for restocking & I've learned to take whatever I can get. So here's what I ended up with.

Unpick the seam. I have a dress zip, so I left the last little bit of the seam done up. If you got an open ended zip you'd unpick all the way.

If you're super busy or lazy you COULD cut it instead of unpicking it. You get a little extra allowance seeing as you're adding in the zipper. That's what I did last time, but I thought I'd better do it properly seeing as I'm showing you this time.
Here's my original one:

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Pin the zip to the raw edges (that you unpicked).
I often look at it with the right-side out, to get the finished look and understand which way I'm supposed to be pinning it. Don't worry too much about bending your mind to get the pins right, if they're facing the wrong way (which mine were), you can simply reposition them.

I'm pointing the way I chose to sew the zip on. I sewed both edges from the 'finger' end to the other end. On the blue pair of overalls I sewed them from opposite ends. As in, I didn't switch the zipper foot to the other side, and the whole outfit ended up about 1.5cm askew.

Put your zipper foot on the machine. This allows you to get really close. If you use your normal foot, it will drive the zipper away and your stitching goes off the edge ...bad. You could do it if you have no choice, but it's harder.
Note how the foot allows you to hook it up to the machine on either side - this may be clearer later...

Sew the zip on. I pull the end out of the way a little, and this just gives it a nicer "finished" look.

I unzipped the zipper to simplify this part.

I stopped 3/4 of the way down the zipper, put my needle down and lifted the foot. I zipped up the zipper so it was out of the way. Just be gentle while your needle is copping a lot of movement in this step.
Then put the foot back down and sew to the end.

To start on the other side, clip your zipper foot to the other side, unzip the zip again and continue as before.

Then I trimmed off the excess to avoid it itching my lil man, and sewed the seam down at the edges to make it 'purdy'. After I took this picture I trimmed the threads right down. Makes your project look so much "less home made".



What do you think??