Framebag questions...ending the side zipper and method for inside corners?

[glenndandy]

Really new to sewing and have a question about ending a zipper on the side panel. Some folks seem to run theirs off the ends and bury it in the downtube/seattube panels. Can you just sew over the zipper where it's out of site? Others make it shorter than the sidepanels and do some kind of cutting/folding back of the opening to create a zipper stop. Love to  get some more detailed pics of what works?!   
  Looking for the efficient way to do inside corners also! I "supervised" good ole mom assembling my first frame bag and gotta say we made the inside corner stitching way too complicated. Used a continuous strip all the way around took many sewing runs at each corner after gathering/pinning and regathering/repinning.....

[trebor]

I've done both with the zipper. Each has it advantage. Fast assembly = running the zipper to the next panel and sewing it in the seam. 99 out of a hundred times your machine will sew right through without so much as a whimper. Every now and then you'll catch a tooth or coil just right and break a needle.

Aesthetically, sewing in a stop and/or zipper garage is nicer. It is even better for the durability of the zipper I think. As the zipper in the seam bends at an awkward angel and stresses the stitching constantly when you zip/unzip. Also, the stop takes some of the load that would be on the zipper teeth/coil likely keeping it running smoother longer and preventing unnecessary stress that could lead to failure. However, this process is much more time consuming and requires quite a bit of planning. I haven't figured out a good way to get the zipper pull on after the stop/garage is added and sewing the zipper in with the pull on is a little (a lot) harder. For reference I don't use premade zips; I buy zipper tape and zipper pulls seperately to make custom lengthes. If you use a non-seperating prebuilt zipper, you have no option but to keep the pull on.

Turning the corner is not too hard if you leave a large enough seam allowance and go SLOW. Control is the name of the game. How much of a seam allowance is open for debate. I started making bags 2 years ago and left 3/8' for my allowance. Now I use 1" and trim the excess when done. It is slightly more wasteful, but makes for a ton less stress during assembly. I found I make fewer mistakes with the extra room.

[rperks]

I cut my zippers about an inch shorter than the full run.  Then pull about a half an inch of coil out of each end (note, I put my sliders on prior to pulling the coil out).  I then bar tack a couple of inches of gross grain or the same material as the bag to the zipper ends, bar tack is at 90 deg to the coil.  The tack acts as the zipper stop and gives me some material to run into the ens seams. 

As for the the corners during assembly, I use a basting stitch to hold the bag together, than come back around a second time with gross grain to bind all of the inside seams.  Everything ends up double stitched and pretty durable.

[wunnspeed]

I haven't, yet, taken off the coil as I haven't found a way that doesn't take forever to do. However, I do put the slider first, figure out how long I want the zipper and sew across a few times to make sure it's not going to come apart. I then sew on the zipper garages on each end and then the side pieces which then get sewn to the sides and the end. Comes out kind of tidy. In fact, working on one at the moment.