Ways to Fix a Broken Zipper – Sewing Machines Los Angeles

If you have a dress, skirt or pair of slacks with a malfunctioning zipper you can’t wear it but you can fix the zipper. As a replacement for throwing away your item of clothing, there are ways to mend a busted zipper or replace it with a new one. Here’s how to mend a busted zip.

These materials are required:

Needle and thread; scissors; pins; seam unpicker; needle-nosed pliers; sewing machine; zipper of similar size for replacement; safety pin

Make some time: it will take five to ten minutes to repair a zipper, and half an hour to an hour to replace one.

Before having a zipper replaced, which can anywhere from half an hour to a whole hour, see if it can be repaired which only takes five or ten minutes. A zipper would need to be replaced if a tooth in the upper part of the zipper is missing or broken. Zip the zipper up so the slider is positioned above the damage.

After threading the needle, stitch around both rows of the zipper to just above the location of the missing tooth. This is going to be the new place that the slider stops. Make sure that it is attached well by stitching over the end a couple times.

If the drag tab of the closure is lost, see if the slider has an opening where the drag tab used to be. A small safety pin through the hole can replace the pull tab if need be. If there isn’t an opening, try to get a clamp-on pull label from a zipper of a comparable dimension. Using a pair of needle-nosed pliers, put the new pull tab on.

Use the seam unpicker to carefully remove the sewing on the lower end of the zipper tape. Take away the metal stoppers at the base of the zip, but don’t take away the tapes. Remove the zipper foot and position the track tapes into the slider grooves appropriately. Push these through the top and into the bottom. You might find it useful to move the track tapes through with a pin. Put the tapes through the slider, then pull it up and you will see on the bottom locked teeth – or else the zipper won’t close evenly. Make a new stop at the bottom using your needle and thread. Lastly, re-stitch the region that holds the zipper to the article of clothing.

You will need to replace the zipper if it is damaged beyond repair. Doing this requires a sewing machine. After ripping the seam with a seam unpicker, the old zipper can be removed. Be sure to take notice of how the old zipper was put in and what kind of stitches were made. Multiple stitching lines are needed for pants’ zippers.

You can follow the instructions on the zipper package to sew it on properly. Put the zipper into place with a pin and sew it into place, just as the old zipper had been. Be sure to have the zipper foot on the sewing machine for this procedure.