Wedding Gown Zipper Trauma

This is almost embarrassing - though I'm SEW THANKFUL that during the final fitting of daughters' wedding gown - just to make sure everything was OK...I had trouble getting that invisible zipper to go up. Now...all along it had been 'testy' - but this time, the zipper slide tore away from the zipper coil!

Thank the Lord, it didn't rip the fabric OR the lace...
Sew...guess what I did last night???

Very, very gratefully re-inserted - BY HAND, that invisible zipper! No way was I going to get back into it on the machine. However, true to the previous insertion experience - and, I ask myself, HOW MANY Invisible Zippers have I put in over the years...let along taught others how - I really fought this one. I DID do the first step of pressing the coil roll out flat. But, I just couldn't get it to not show -

Now realize, I have the 18 or so covered buttons still stitched onto the left side of the 'ivisible' seam...darned if I want to take all those off and sew them back on!

Anyway - I finally decided to stitch it in - NOT trying to go all that close to the coil with a very small back stitch - and THEN, I pretended it was a hand-picked zipper, and once the 'roll' of it all perfectly covered the zip - and those buttons actually rested right on the seam nicer - THEN, I pinned and stitched with a prick stitch through ALL the layers!

Worked like a charm. I know I took up a bit - teensy bit more width in doing it this way - and she'll (obviously) try it on again today... but it looks fine, and it goes up and down without any problem.

Thinking back on the challenges of getting that zip up and down in previous fittings, I think this challenge was 'brewing' for awhile.

Lesson: ALWAYS do a final 'for sure' fitting on important garments!

Again - thank the Lord for it breaking NOW and giving me a non-stressed evening to fix it!