A long bound zip! Loom Bag #2

Today I worked on the gusset of my loom bag. It will be faux leather all around and will have a bottom section that will overlap the top section. The top section will consist of two zippers that will "kiss" in the center of the top gusset and extend all the way to the bottom of the bag. The bottom gusset will come up a  couple of inches and overlap the zipper starts. Here is how I did the zipper, which in total was 56 inches long.

I used two separating zippers. The zippers did not need to separate as their ends would be covered and secured by the bottom gusset. So why did I? Because it is much easier to install this zipper if you are able to work on each half separately and a separating zip enabled that. I bought two 28 inch separating jacket zips.

The first thing I did was turn the zips to the wrong side and with a bit of Wonder Tape fold the zip ends back on the diagonal. This will allow the stops to meet each other closely in the center of the bag.

The faux black leather gusset had fusible fleece stitched to the edge where the zip will be. Then on the right side a strip of fabric was stitched with my 1/4 inch foot to the gusset, right sides together as shown.

The binding was then flipped over and pinned in place. I worked on one half of the zip at a time. Now the zip had to be installed. The zips were zipped up and their ends met at the center of the gusset.  I am not happy with the waviness of the faux leather and am hoping the finished installation will minimize that. I will say that the flash on the camera makes it look much worse than it really does.

Before I started stitching everything, I put a dot of Sewer's Aid on my finger and rubbed down the needle shaft, the bottom of the presser foot and the throat plate. This really helps things glide along. A size 14 Stretch needle was used for all the sewing. I find this gives great results with faux leathers and doesn't make too big holes.

The bindings have been flipped and stitched into place by topstitching the faux leather a couple of clicks away, where you see the red dotted line.

Here you can see how the zips "kiss" each other very nicely. That diagonal fold facilitates that. Now to install the other side. 

This whole process was facilitated by using Wonder Tape on the edges of the zipper. Besides helping the gusset stick to the zipper, it also gave me an edge to line up to without any further measuring.  

My next step was to stitch down the zip. I did this with a "triple ZigZag" stitch. I like to do this as it makes the zipper installation very secure and also adds a bit of decoration. Now to do the same to the other side of the gusset. 

All done! 56 inches of zipper installed.  Now it is time to do the gusset installation. Other than I MIGHT, and there is heavy emphasis on the might, do some further embellishment on the Starry Night fabric, it will be time to put this outer shell together. 

Right now it is SO FREAKIN' COLD! At eight o'clock this morning it was twenty one degrees below zero.Hubby and I did go out and do necessary errands but tomorrow will be even colder. I am planning a total hunker down day then a great evening of football watching with my man. Go Patriots!...Bunny

ETA: Here's a picture of the loom, as requested and to help understand what I am trying to pull off here. It's deceptively simple looking but I am quickly learning that it is not.  There are also also sorts of parts you can't see here that need to stay close. They look like the sort of thing that could easily get lost in my husband's tool cave or mistaken for some other use. So by organizing everything in one package, the loom bag, I can keep track of my goodies.