.:Tutorial Tuesday - Faux Zipper Shirt:.

I have been loving finding small details to embellish my girls' clothing with. It is satisfying to do minimal work but have a smashing effect.

These zipper shirts are just that - a little embellishing to make a fun statement. Exposed zippers are a bit of a trend right now, so I decided to do a faux exposed zipper on some shirts for my girls.



Here's what you need:

- shirts (yay for Target's cheap plain shirts!)
- zippers (Coats & Clark has a bunch of fun ones right now; these are all from Michael's. I think these lace zippers might have a future in my sewing projects as well!)
- sewing machine/accessories



Start off by measuring how far down you want the exposed zipper to go on the back of the shirt.

Cut the zipper.

My shirts have a pocket on the front, so I figured we should put a little zipper border on the front. No pull on it, just one little exposed piece of one side of the zipper. (Sorry for the blurry picture; we really need a new camera!)

Pin your zipper in the middle of the back of your shirt.

Pin the border to the pocket on the front.

Sew in place in coordinating thread. Don't sew through both layers of your shirt!

Seriously easy. If you are worried about little hands pulling the zipper up and off the shirt, you can put some hot glue to keep the zipper in place. This has held up great for us!

And so fun to do with these new patterned and metallic zippers! The shirts go perfectly with the ruffled maxi skirts I made for my girls.

It's a little bright, Mom!

Let's peek in and see what Daddy is doing in there.

What do you think? A little more fun than just a plain shirt, yeah?

I think a patterned zipper would look pretty cute on a patterned shirt, too! What would you put an exposed zipper on?