My 2mth old son is already in 3-6mth clothes and growing! So I was looking at the clothes he's already outgrown (most of it looking BRAND new!) and pondering what to do with it (there's a surplus of infant boy's clothes circulating my church right now). And, being the crafty type, an idea popped into my head: What if I take one or two of his practically new infant sleepers and sew the zippers shut, sew the sleeves shut, stuff the insides and add a head? Voila! Instant doll! Or so I thought until I tried to figure out how to permanently sew shut the zipper... There's already extra fabric on the inside that was originally meant to protect the baby's sensitive skin from the abrasive zipper... I just can't figure out how to finagle it onto my machine without ending up with an unattractive pinch down the front... does that make sense? Anyone have a suggestion? Is there a foot or accessory that might help with this?? I'm kinda stumped, but I really don't trust my hand sewing with something that children will regularly handle.
TIA!

If I am reading right, you just want to make sure that the zipper doesn't open, right? How about some glue in the slide? then it won't move.

To keep a zipper from opening up: EASY! Zip it all the way up and sew it by hand. Using a needle and thread knot the thread, insert the needle in the back and push to the front on one side of the zipper just below the zipper pull and push to the back on the other side, just like sewing a button on but without the button. Use enough loops the zipper pull can't back down over it. New Mom, remember this because in time your boy will be wearing jackets with zip on hoods that keep unzipping and you'll want to keep the hood on the jacket, not halfway off. Incidentally, now you also know how to make a zipper stop at the bottom of a too long zipper.

Ideally I'd like to sew the extra fabric strip that's already on the inside right along the side of the zipper so that the zipper still "functions" but doesn't actually open the outfit...if that makes sense. I thought it would make a bonus activity feature, but this may not be realistic and I'll certainly settle for a secure closing solution.

I had thought of looping a bunch of thread to keep the pull from going down, but I also want to insure against the zipper opening in the middle due to pressure. Maybe a combo of both looping & glue would work... I hadn't thought of that. But I wonder: would the glue wash out after a while???

If the inside section isn't wide enough to be able to sew it to the other side, add a piece of fabric to the piece and the you would have larger piece to try to connect to the other side... Chris

Can you turn the sleeper to wrong side, put the seams together and sew with a zipper foot close to zipper edge. This may work.

Wanda

THANK YOU! Your comments got me looking at the sleeper differently and I've figured out not only how to close it up, but to do it invisibly and STILL leave the zipper free for play! Yeah! Thanks so much!!! I'll post pics when it's done.