[meleliza]

Invisible zippers are less strong than regular ones, and they do sometimes break. They’re not used in couture sewing. With all that bulky fabric, I would use a regular zipper. I often do my zippers by hand with a pick stitch, but you could do a simple center insertion too, which would give it a vintage look.

[papaececi]

Thank you so much for the advice. I will try the regular zipper with a pick stitch!

[stylememary]

I’m currently sewing this up in a cheapy crushed panne velvet, a fabric which I don’t recommend. However, I’ve just installed a hand-picked regular zipper, and I love the look of it. It’s easy to do and you can control the velvet quite easily. Here’s a tutorial by Susan Khalje:

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/5135/a-hand-picked-zipper-is-worth-the-effort

[meleliza]

Yeah, that panne velvet! I use it strictly for Halloween costumes when cheap is the object. It stretches and slips and slides and is a right royal pain in the backside! But it is cheap, and it does make a good cape. I needed 6 yards for a Halloween cape and didn’t want to spend $100s. I love a hand picked zipper – I learned from a Susan Khalje class too – and in this case it probably saved you time. You would have been fighting that fabric with a zip through the machine.