More skirt math, part 2

You now have five pieces cut like this.  I named them for the next section:

STEP TWO: Fold in, iron, and sew down .25" on the center sides of R2 and L2.

STEP THREE: Take a short zipper, at least 1/2 longer than the height of your top pieces.  Longer is fine, but kind of a waste.  Unzip the zipper as far as it goes.  Pin the zipper to the back of L2 so that the knobby part of the zipper just barely peeks out on the side.  Like this:

Look! I drew a zipper!

STEP FOUR: Sew piece R2 over the other side of the zipper, so that the fabric overlaps the zipper by about .5"  Like this:

It's the same zipper, but still cool!

Notice that when you zip up the zipper, the right piece overlaps the left piece, so you can't see the zipper!  This is the hardest part.  You're done with the hard part.  Yay!

STEP FIVE: Sew L1 onto L2, as they are laid out, so the diagonal of L1 is on the very outside.  Do the same for R1 and R2.  Sew with right sides facing and then iron open the seams.  It should look like this:

STEP SIX: Zip up the zipper.  With right sides facing, sew the top edge of Front Bottom piece to the bottom edge of the thing you just made.  Iron the seams so that all of the excess fabric goes downward.  This way the zipper leftovers just go straight down, and don't create any more bulk than they have to.  Top stitch the seams down.  You now have a front piece.

TO BE CONTINUED...