How to Draw A Metallic Zipper in Illustrator (with the pull and stop in ONE brush!)

Drawing zippers in Illustrator is TEDIOUS! And if you want to add a gradient to make it metallic? You CAN'T do that in brushes! 🙄!
In this tutorial, you'll learn exactly how to:
- Create your ENTIRE zipper in one brush - including the pull, stop, stitching and more!
-The quick metallic “hack” effect for brushes (since Illustrator doesn’t let you use gradients)
-Change the color of your zipper brush with ONE click
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REMEMBER TO SNAG YOUR FREE TRIM LIBRARY! 👇
I’m also giving away the trim library that you can use over and over on all your designs (plus the AI file of the finished jacket sketch so you can follow along). DOWNLOAD FREE HERE: bit.ly/FreeTrims
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ALL FASHION FLAT FILES ARE FROM TEMPLATES FOR FASHION! 👇
www.TemplatesforFashion.com
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FREE RESOURCES
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ABOUT SEW HEIDI
Heya! Nice to meet you, I’m Heidi. I teach fashion designers like you the real world skills you actually need to learn to succeed in this cutthroat industry.
(You know, all the stuff you don’t learn at fashion school.)
I’ve worked as a contract designer for over a decade and run SuccessfulFashionDesigner.com. I’ve been able to make a healthy living doing work I love in fashion.
But I got started just like you, one step at a time. It began with some embarrassing hand sewn dresses and fashion sketches that would make a 3-year-old’s artwork look like a masterpiece.
Then, things changed. I learned how design was done on a large scale. I learned how to get things into production. And I learned all the skills I wish I knew when I was first starting out.
Now, I dedicate most of my time teaching you all of that. This content is hard to find anywhere else (because in fashion, people keep secrets), so I decided to create it...and give most of it away for free.
Want more than what you find on KZbin? Sign up here, it’s free: bit.ly/SewHeidiSubscribeYT

[@randyfernando4442]

I just followed this step by step, and IT IS THE BEST TUTORIAL EVER! THANK YOU for sharing this. 😍

[@mjk8441]

Thank you so much, Heidi!! Your tutorials and free trim libraries helped me a lot 🙇‍♀️ Sending love from South Korea 🙆‍♀️💕

[@evec511]

Heidi, thank you so much for this awesome in-depth tutorial with all the details and issues that can come up. Super helpful! Like all of your tutorials! Thanks so much!!

[@nopoepelipiapa]

I did it, i close everything and i did it from the beginning, thank you :)

[@julieach71]

You are a god send Heidi, you have helped me so much over the years :) thank you.

[@suetaitporcaro2481]

the BEST tutorials!!

[@SewHeidi]

Awww thank you so much!

[@modalavie]

Thank you for the video !

[@snehass111]

Great tutorial Ma'am... I am so lucky to have a teacher like you 😘😘 Love from India❤

[@SewHeidi]

Awww thank you!

[@JanetCaterina]

Giant thank you, it may take me a while to get all of these details but I do so much appreciate this, also for the trim library, so good to have

[@SewHeidi]

You’re welcome! It’s a great library :)

[@mohsennazari9691]

Thank you so much

[@luciaaa3962]

Heidiiii! Thanks for the tutorial! Ai is great, but you always make it just awesome!

[@SewHeidi]

Luciaaa!! Thank you so much 😌😌😌!!

[@NomanJohan]

This right here is utter brilliance.

[@SewHeidi]

Haha yesss! It’s a good one :)

[@isratzahan3691]

This is so awesome... 😍

[@SewHeidi]

Yayyyy! So glad you enjoyed 🤩!

[@suetaitporcaro2481]

i LOVE this and i downloaded all the tools! thank y ou!

[@SewHeidi]

Woot woot!

[@bolleidschenveenbol1592]

Thank you so much,

[@SewHeidi]

Thank you so much!

[@shamsalsaad9990]

thaks million times

[@luciaaa3962]

Hi Heidi, me again :-) Just sat own and created my own zippers following your tutorial... And I didn't got the bug problem with the gradient... I was wondering why not and the only thing I made different was expanding the strokes (and than fixing them together into one outline shape with the shapbuilder tool just to clean it up :D it's just one of my little tidy obsessions :DD) of every single segment before putting them together. Dunno if that helps and makes sense but yeah, no bug when it comes to the gradient at the pulling segment. And because I always do make a copy before expanding things, I won't have a big problem if I want to adjust things afterwards. Just a liiiittle more work, but yeah... it works and the result is satisfying :-) Greetings Lucia

[@artistartist3364]

Thanks a lot!

[@SewHeidi]

Welcome!

[@khattak448]

thank you so much mam i really appreciate that

[@SewHeidi]

Happy to help :)

[@TheSideEyeSaint]

Hi Heidi, love this tutorial, i recently down graded to just photoshop as i do most of my designs on paper and just add detail on after could you possible make the trim library available as a PSD if this could be possible you would save my life thankkkss

[@samjack4689]

Hi! I tried this out and all was going well and I was so pleased with myself until I tried to expand the gradient. It went from being gray to being black. The stroke was off and the fill was on so i have no idea what i did wrong. Help!

[@archanasurana4024]

i have tried downloading the freebies but its not opening in illustrator ,as its showing its an unknown format,am using the version 24.0.2,please help.

[@teaitvancelikamaboll5293]

Thank You mam

[@SewHeidi]

Most welcome 😊

[@christinajones7788]

How to you scale this smaller to use for a fashion flat?

[@jordanredwine1058]

I'm using illustrator 2023 so I don't know if its different now, but I also put on the smart guides and that did nothing as well. Most importantly im racking my brain trying to figure out how you update the existing pattern brush LOL! HELP

[@nopoepelipiapa]

Hello, I did de inviisible rectangle for the zipper pull, but i don´t know what i did wrong because the teeth didn´t reach the end.

[@derrickkkkkkkkkkkk]

For some reason when I made the zipper, the zipper pull is placed underneath the teeth, how do I fix this?

[@sumerget3849]

The zipper pulls from your trims download do not open in the new brush stroke panel. How do I go about making one myself?

[@thdmlnt5258]

I am using illustrator CS4 and even though I expanded the gradient into 10 objects, I still can' t add my artwork to the pattern brush. I did make sure that my bounding box is completely at the back but It still says ''The selected artwork contains an element that cannot be used in a pattern brush''. Does anybody have any idea or alternative of how I can overcome this issue?

[@jordanredwine1058]

How do you update a brush just by dragging the piece of the zipper into the brush library? When I do that it only gives me the option to create a whole new brush, I can't update the existing one

[@noyonika05]

But I am not able to reduce the size of the zipper, and hence it's not coming in use for me !! Help me !

[@suetaitporcaro2481]

not able to expand the gradient zipper pull...its grayed out

[@JanetCaterina]

wow, I have to try this and commit it to memory once and for all. If it is not a gradient fill, I am still not getting a way to change the colors

[@SewHeidi]

Don’t worry too much about memorizing - you’ll only do it a few times to build the brushes you need, which you can then use over and over. If you need to do it again in 6mos, refresh with the video! Save your memory for stuff you do all the time!

[@821hello]

Thanks for the tutor! I expanded the gradient , unchecked the stroke, specify set to 10 objects. I tried to drag the items to replace the original ones in the brush box, but it still says “the selected artwork contains an element that cannot be used in a petter brush.” Why isn’t it working?

[@evec511]

Did you forget to send the bounding box to the back again?

[@riaxandra1870]

Hello! I've done everything as said in the video but my zipper teeth still keep stopping where the pull starts even if I have invisible boxes at the back. Any tips?

[@adollyscent7490]

Mine too. Did you managed to fix it?

[@suetaitporcaro2481]

nvm....figured it out...LOL

[@brigitteperel3665]

TU;)

[@jmnyc2100]

This is ridiculous. Drawing zipper should be easier than this. Who has time to do this? It's a lot fasters to do it by hands honestly. computer might look good on paper, this is taking too much time. Computer is supposed to make life easier not more complicated.