Zippers stretching?

[tyquilter]

A few sets of zippers came with my used Millie. I just recently sewed the zippers onto the bottom leaders. When I sew the fabric on these zippers, it is kind of wavy. That does not happen to the top zipper. Do the zippers stretch out after time? I'm not pulling (stretching) on the fabric when I sew it to the zippers. Thank you for your help.

[ffq-lar]

If the backer is zipped onto the leader and the fabric is flat and there is no noticeable wonkiness, they are good enough to use as-is. If the zipped-on fabric is wavy, perhaps spritz the zipper with water, cover with a towel, and steam a small section to see if that helps.

[Zora]

I think your stitch length when sewing the zippers on affects the amount of "wave"..at least that is what I found. The longer the stitch length, the less wave I got. Your canvas edges may also be stretched. You may need to fold the canvas back to a place where it is not stretched out or wavy and attach the zippers there. You might even have to cut off the stretched part of the canvas edge and serge the raw edge of the canvas. You might have to take the canvas off the rollers to do that, so at that point, it might be the thing to do to just get new canvas altogether. I'm not an expert...these are my observations from having just now attached zippers to my 2009 Millie.

[quiltmonkey]

I agree with Zora...

 

Perhaps it's not the zippers that have stretched... rather the leaders have streched over time. My leaders (with the zippers) had gotten this way over time so I ordered new leaders and installed them on my machine (But I still haven't sewn the zippers back on to my new leaders--- zippers look great. I need to get around to sewing my zippers back on!   I think it's your leaders that are stretched.  Do you have old leaders?  If so, invest in some new ones. It makes a world of difference!