We’ve all been there. That sad day when the zipper on our favorite hoodie, bag, or pair of pants breaks in some seemingly irreparable way. But there is hope, and [Magic Stitches] is gonna show you how to make some common repairs using household items and, in some cases, just a little bit of easy hand sewing. After a warm up with a kitchen fork, the video moves on to more significant problems.
The first problem — a chewed-away zipper bottom — is quite common, but requires no sewing to fix. As you’ll see in the video below, all it takes is a drinking straw, some hot glue, a lighter, and a pair of scissors to recreate the plastic bit that keeps the zipper from splitting in twain.
Now the second issue concerns a pair of pants wherein the head has come off the static side of the zipper. This one seems impossible to fix, but [Magic Stitches] cuts into the static side about five teeth from the bottom, slides the head back on, and sews the bottom of the zipper together.
This one we take a little bit of an issue with, because it assumes that you can get your jeans on over your hips without needing the zipper head to be fully down. But what else are you going to do but throw the jeans away upcycle the jeans into a fanny pack or something to immortalize them?
For the third issue, we’re back to the poor red hoodie, which also has a run in the zipper tape. After cutting off the fuzzies, [Magic Stitches] sews it back together with a contrasting thread (presumably to help us see the repair). If they had used black, it wouldn’t show at all, except now there is just a tiny bit of pull on the hoodie where the snag was. Again, we’re saving a presumably beloved hoodie here, and some people like their repairs to show.
Finally, [Magic Stitches] has a duffel bag with a zipper that comes back apart once it’s been zipped. At first, they tried squeezing the zipper head with pliers while the zipper was still attached, but that didn’t fix the problem. By carefully cutting the end of the tape, they could slide the head off of the ends and squish both sides with pliers more effectively. This is probably the hardest repair of all because it involves threading the head back on. In the end, all you have to do is sew a few stitches across the end of the teeth and then sew the tape back to the bag.
Got a broken zipper box? You can fix that with 3D printing. Mystified about how zippers work? No need to be.
If the pull tab breaks off, I use a key ring to replace it. It also has the advantage that it can be looped into the button to keep the zipper from sliding open.
I use paperclips, they are a great conversation starter
Neat; I like it.
But would the repairs last another 10 years? ;)
sure they will, put them on the closet and check back after 10 years ;)
If it’s garment i like wearing i often bring them to my local tailor shop, he will replace it for a new YKK zipper and that will last another 10 year of usage. But for other scenario’s and holiday fixes these are certainly good tips. Just remember to always bring a gluestick with you.
Wait, do you mean you don’t, as a matter of course, have a piece of a gluestick on you?! Basic mistake…
:) SCNR
Alas nothing is made to last significantly anymore. Items I purchased in the 1970s have lasted to this day in good working shape. For example, leather hiking boots where I’ve replaced the soles three times from wearing down while walking but not one stitch has broken, including the laces. Pants where the metal zipper works perfectly and no wear or broken stitches. Still in great shape material wise.
Today pants fall in disrepair after a year or most two. Hiking boots loose their shape quickly and unglue quickly, slippery soles because it’s plastic not rubber.
I have a 20-year old laptop bag with a dodgy zip that I would love to repair. My problem is different to those demonstrated here. In my case, the nylon “spiral” of the zip is sewn to the fabric backing, like most other nylon zips. Unfortunately, some of that stitching has perished, allowing the spiral to detach from the backing, and resulting in the zip popping open as illustrated in the last example (although obviously with a different root cause!).
I’d love to see tips for repairing that successfully.
w.r.t the video: I have had good success manually re-engaging the teeth of the zip by curving each side away from each other to open the teeth, engaging them, and then relaxing the curve. It’s tedious, but can allow you to do things like re-attach the zipper to the teeth without having to cut into the zip near the bottom (i.e. cutting between the teeth). This allows you full travel on the zip as it previously was.
The fix for this problem is exactly the same as for the 3rd zip in the video (the one where there is a split in the zipper backing). All you have to do is stitch through the zipper into the backing. If you take a close look at your zipper, you can see the original stitch line; just follow that.
You can do the stitching like in the video where you are skipping forward two teeth on the bottom, and going back one tooth on top, or just do a running straight stitch that goes over one tooth on top and under the next one on the bottom. They’ll both work. The first will be stronger, but the second will be a lot quicker.
I recently did this repair on my own laptop backpack (that I’ve been using for the past 10 years). I used “coat and button” thread, as it is significantly stronger (and only a little bit thicker).
For the last issue it didn’t look like the issue was resolved by better squishing. The zipper came apart because it wasn’t closed at the very start until they removed the head.
Good luck finding a plastic straw in EU ;-)
You can use whatever piece of plastic, the straw is just cut anyway to hold the melted hot glue. In fact even a 3D printed pinch part would do, since it’s thermoformed around the zip end.
My biggest issue with zippers is camping gear.
Whether it’s a sleeping bag, or a tent, or an equipment bag.. The zippers always fail over time.
This video is excellent, for those people that have their favorite piece of camping gear fail.
Thank you!
I also recommend “Zipper Ease” as a lubricant for highly valued zippers.
you had me at “all it takes is a drinking straw, some hot glue, a lighter, and a pair of scissors”
Will that hot glue survive in the dryer???