Don’t Fear the (Replacement) Zipper

The one act of sewing that universally strikes fear into the heart of even the most sturdy sewing enthusiast is the act of putting in a zipper. So much consternation caused by two little innocent strips of teeth, but why? I’m going to say the root of this evil is not installing a new zipper, but rather the latent fear replacing a broken zipper. After all, we can sew, right? So how hard could it be to just take out that old broken zipper and pop in a new one? Pretty hard, cupcake. Pretty hard. Here are a few tips to increase your odds of success.

• Plan… with your phone! I know you want to hurry up and get started, but before you do, let’s make a preemptive strike towards success. Everyone has a cell phone now and thus easy access to something better than memory - photography! Before going at it with the seam ripper, take some pictures of what it looked like before you ripped it apart (both sides!). You are really going to appreciate some reference pics in about 15 minutes.
• Rip it good - Once you go at those jeans with the seam ripper and quickly find out how hard that is, the initial inclination is to just take out enough stitches to get that sucker out of there. Herein lies the problem. If you just barely had enough room to get the old one out, then getting in the new one will be harder than parking an F150 in a Boston parking garage. You are going to have to rip those stitches back, waaaaay back. You are going to want to rip out enough seams to be able to lay the whole thing flat.
• Baste, not waste - Next, I’m going to recommend something that is pretty much anathema to modern sewists: basting. I know we live in an age of the Clover® Wonder Clip – possibly the greatest quilting accessory ever - so why ever baste again? Zippers, my friend. Zippers. Basting will enable you to get into all those little, tiny seams and corners. Normally, one rips out the basting stitches after the job is done, but in the case of zippers, I just use the same color thread as is the zipper and leave those little guys in there because, after all, we’ve done enough ripping for today.
• The right tool for the job - Finally, my last tip for guaranteed zipper success is please use a zipper foot. If you don’t have one, you can get an after market knock off zipper foot at your local big box sewing and crafts store for a few dollars. It is worth the drive to the store, even if you do end up buying more fabric that you don’t need while there. The zipper foot enables you to get really close to the teeth. Trying to use a regular foot will result in you having to sew with the teeth under the foot and that’s going to skate all over the place and leave the stitches really loopy.

I hope these recommendations will help make your next zipper repair project a success. Before you know it, you’ll be doing what I do: taking zippers out of old jeans and saving them, just for the sake of having a bunch of cool little zippers!

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