Okay ya'll I need your help! I'm designign a hooded, zip front cardigan for my guys for winter, and I need zippers in 12", 14" 16" and 18". I;m guessing I'l have to buy onger ones and shorten them, right? But how do I do that? What is the best kind of zipper to get for this?

Yes, just buy them longer, cut them off at 1" longer than you need it to be and wip stitch about 6 times at about .25" below the length you need. I have done this with all kinds of zippers even metal. You can machine stitch the nylon ones, but I like to hand stitch.

Those sizes you should actually be able to buy as is, not necessarily at Joann's or Walmart though. Try zipperstop on ebay- they have EVERYTHING!

I always buy zippers that are too big, just cut them down to size.

Found this a while ago & it really helped me visualize it:
Great article in Sew News that explains it. (http://www.sewnews.com/library/sewnews/qa/aaqa0103a.htm)