I just finished making new leaders with zippers. I used pillow ticking and made use of the woven lines. Make sure the ticking you purchase is woven .. not printed (ask me how I know ... call me ticked off!), also suggest leaving it unwashed. I suspect (but don't know) that washing it might pull it off grain. I also made sure that the stripe was in the same place across the selvage and I test measured the stripes in a few areas as well to make sure the strips were indeed straight (I did this at the store ... let's say THEY were a bit ticked off <g>). Then I just used the lines in the ticking to sew on my zippers and attach the other end of the leaders to the rods on the frame.
I used a pretty ingenious method to attach the zippers but since you're using the red snappers I won't bore you with it.