Tutorial Review: Charlotte dress part 5: the invisible zipper

Remember a few days ago when I almost jumped in front of a bus because I couldn't figure out that invisible zipper tutorial?  Well, today I decided to try a different invisible zipper tutorial to see if it went any better.  The tutorial I decided to use was The Charlotte Dress Part 5: The Invisible Zipper from Craftiness is Not Optional.

Just to clarify, I did not actually make the Charlotte dress.  The only part of this tutorial I'm reviewing is how to insert the invisible zipper, which I inserted into another party skirt because I just loved how the first one turned out.

 

Okay.  Ready?  Let's check out the zipper.  Here's how my invisible zipper turned out with the Charlotte Dress tutorial:

To compare, here's how my invisible zipper turned out with the tutorial from Clever Nesting:

Much better this time than last, huh?  I was proud.  So let's get on with the review.

Accuracy: 9

Clarity of Directions: 8.5

Helpfulness of Pictures: 8.5
Difficulty: 7

Time: 30 min.

Overall Rating: 8.5

Recommended 

Details:

This tutorial was so, so much easier to understand than the one I tried last week.  To be fair, I had never tried to sew an invisible zipper before last week, so I can't say for sure that the tutorial was as terrible as I felt like it was or if it was just because I'd never sewn one before and had no idea where to even start.  But, on my second try with the Charlotte Dress tutorial, I didn't even have to rip out any seams!  And the zipper is totally invisible.  Hurrah!

The instructions were pretty clear and the pictures illustrated the verbal steps quite well.  The only hairy part (the reason why I took off some points on the clarity of directions and on the helpfulness of pictures) was sewing down the second side of the zipper.  The verbal directions here were a little mucked up, and the picture was cut off at the bottom so that I couldn't see the whole zipper and figure out quite what I was supposed to be doing.  I really didn't want to rip out any seams this time, though, so I pinned the zipper in place and kept trying to zip it up until I got it pinned in the right place.  This actually took three tries, which means if I had have sewn it down before checking maybe I would have hated this tutorial as much as the last one.  Who knows?

So, my tips on invisible zippers, then?  Maybe it's not as much about the tutorial as I think it is.  The key, in my opinion, is trying to zip the zipper once you have the second side pinned before you actually sew it!  That way you can see right away if you have it placed right or not and avoid ripping it out four times and wanting to shoot yourself. :)

Soo...I guess that's all I've got for ya right now.  Happy sewing and see you next time! :)