Changing Your Clothes

Shopping, Sewing, Upcycling, Repairing: Make the most of your clothes!

Tag Archives: zipper


by Leave a comment

Zip It, The Epilogue: Non-DIY Zipper Pulls!

Here’s a great place for hand-made zipper pulls: Lubun Bay Jewelry on Etsy!

Lubun Bay zipper pulls/stitch markers

Gwen’s zipper pulls and stitch markers, in her Etsy shop, Lubun Bay Jewelry!

In addition to zipper pulls (for just $2.50!!), Gwen makes beautiful jewelry, and stitch markers for knitting and crochet. And she can make your zipper pull in the color of your choice! Go and visit her on Etsy!

(And if you’d like to try your hand at making your own zipper pulls, check out my super-new tutorial!)


by 2 Comments

Zip It, The Finale: 5 Easy Steps to a DIY Zipper Pull!

In the short amount of time I spent getting ready this morning for my great DIY zipper pull experiment, I learned several things:

1. I have relatively few clothes with zippers.

2. The ones with zippers are almost all invisible zippers. (This is probably due to my preference when making clothes— I find invisible zippers the easiest to install.)

3. The pulls on invisible zippers vary considerably from those of regular zippers.

Why are these facts important? Well, if you look at the following 2 photos,  you’ll see that the available places where you can connect a new zipper pull are quite different:

Regular zipper

Example of a regular zipper. Note the nice, big, obvious hole in the zipper pull.

Invisible zipper Example of invisible zipper. Unlike the regular zipper, the pull on this one doesn’t have a hole; the new zipper pull will have to attach to the horseshoe-shaped piece above the pull shown here. Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Zip It, Part Deux: DIY Pull?

This is the first part of my follow-up on yesterday’s post on fixing a broken/missing zipper pull (Zip It: The Lost-Pull Fix). The next part will include full instructions for making a zipper pull (hurrah!).

When I needed pliers to open my replacement zipper pull, I grabbed the first ones I could lay my hands on, which happened to be in my jewelry-making supply box. They were right next to a package of lobster-claw clasps, and even though I was in a hurry to get that blog post going, it did occur to me at the time to wonder if those clasps would fit on an ordinary zipper pull. Hmm…

This morning, I took a closer look at my jewelry materials. Here’s the result of a quick rummage through my supplies:

Possible make-your-own-zipper-pull materials, clockwise starting with the package of lobster-claw clasps: a fancier brass lobster-claw clasp, a jeweled pendant, faux peridot pendant, faux sapphire pendant, and an old necklace with a pendant that could be repurposed as a zipper-pull ornament.

Zippers are such utilitarian things, why not dress them up a bit? (For all we know, they suffer from a perpetual sense of inferiority, considering the beautiful buttons, frogs, laces, and other closure types that compete with zippers. A lot of zippers are actually invisible! Honestly… how would you feel?)

Continue reading →


by 1 Comment

Zip it: The Lost-Pull Fix

I just found this cute cotton skirt at my favorite thrift store (Value Village), complete with bohemian print and sequin embellishment, for which I paid the princely sum of $2.50.

Embellished print skirt

Embellished print skirt, found at my favorite thrift store, Value Village.

My general belief is that clothes are given to thrift stores for a reason, whether it’s a fit issue, a stain that won’t come out, or maybe that Bridget Jones-inspired reindeer pullover was a gift you just can’t bring yourself to wear. From what I’ve seen, the most common reason we give clothing away is because there’s something wrong with it that we don’t know how to fix. In this case, my summery little skirt was missing its zipper pull.

Continue reading →