How to sew an invisible or hidden zipper

I confess that invisible zippers are my favorite type of zipper. Invisible zippers are made in such a way that when they are sewn onto the fabric they are completely hidden in the seam.
They are not the strongest type of zipper but they are great when you want to finish a garment with a very clean finish, a finish that really looks like there is no zipper.

The invisible zipper can go anywhere on our garment, for example a side seam or a center back seam. By this I mean that it does not matter if the seam is a little curved, the invisible zipper can be sewn in both curved and straight areas. It can be used on blouses, skirts, dresses, pants…

The first thing we have to do is to mark the large of our zipper with notches on the fabric. My recommendation is to buy the zipper longer than you need. For example, if you want to put a 20 cm zipper on the garment when you buy the invisible zipper it should be at least 25 cm long.

We will mark two notches on the fabric, one at the beginning of the zipper and one at the end.

I mark the first notch 1 cm or 1.5 cm from the top of the piece depending on the seam allowance you use. From there I mark another notch according to the zipper length I want on my garment.

If you look at the top of the invisible zipper you will see that there is a little plastic. We will place that plastic just below the first notch. Just like I marked the notches on my fabric I’m going to mark them on both sides of the zipper as well.

Thanks to the notches you will place the invisible zipper in its place. The zipper should be positioned facing the right side of the fabric.

To sew this type of zipper it is important to use the invisible zipper foot. With your fingers you have to open slightly the zipper teeth so that the stitching will pass under them.

See how the stitching is hidden!
Now you can lightly iron the surface of the fabric with the zipper on so that the fabric takes shape. The zipper teeth should be hidden. If the teeth are visible, it’s because you didn’t stitch close enough to the teeth.

Finally you can sew the seam that goes from the end of the zipper to the bottom of the garment. Place both pieces of fabric right sides together and stitch a seam allowance.
I find it very helpful to use the standard zipper foot in this step because it allows me to get closer to the zipper stitching that we have done before.

First check that the seam has turned out nicely on the right side of the garment. If you have finished sewing and the zipper is too long you can cut it with scissors.