Lips Zipped Shut
Remember last week when I was like, “I am so great with zippers. I love zippers! They are so easy! Watch me sew away!!”?
Right.
Well, apparently the zipper gods were laughing their merry little zig zagged heads off at my taunts. This weekend, I figured out how to completely destroy a wristlet with one snip too close to a zipper stop.
Apparently that zipper stop is there for a reason. When I purchased zippers too large for the latest batch of wristlets, I over-confidently thought, “I’ll just trim them! Ha ha! Watch me be the master of my zipper domain!” Alas, when you cut off the zipper stop and then proceed to yank the zipper pull, it comes off and refuses to go back to a functioning state, leaving you with two nicely sewn rows of zipper teeth with nothing to pull them together. Lovely.
[Note: In this case, just pull out your rotary cutter and trim that zipper off. Start over and sew the remaining pieces with a new zipper, more carefully trimmed. Then promptly offer up a little prayer to the crafty goddesses and promise not to get too cocky in the future.]
My Project Spectrum entry for May. Lovely greens:
~K
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If you are going to cut off too long zippers, sew a “new” zipper stop before you cut off the old one.
To do that, I usually use the buttonhole feature on my machine and choose one of the “end parts” and then just go over the zipper a bunch of times and Voila, new zipper stop.
Great bags.
May 8th, 2006 at 8:56 amlove the tree fabric!
May 8th, 2006 at 10:32 amTree fabric! I love it, too!
May 8th, 2006 at 10:35 ammmm, LOVE the green (of course. i’m such a green fanatic.) and I agree with Sarah HB, but i always just do it by hand. cut off the stop and then sew five or six stitches on top of each other where you want to end in the same color thread as the zipper. works like a charm.
May 8th, 2006 at 10:44 amOhhhh!! Zippers + Me = DISASTER !
I know how you must of felt when that happened. I have about 3 “good” zipper days in a row, then by day 4…look out!!
May 8th, 2006 at 4:40 pmYes indeedy those stoppers are there for a reason. Doh. I always shorten zippers at the other end where it’s easer to sew the end down and stop the run off the rails problem. Good luck!
May 8th, 2006 at 8:49 pmtrees! beautiful.
May 8th, 2006 at 11:40 pm