Stuck Zipper Fixed

I had a clothing problem this weekend, but I managed to thwart it and learn to appreciate a time-consuming task.

I bought a skirt Friday, for $11.30 (including tax), marked way down from about $35. From Macy's. I was thrilled. It sits at my natural waist, so it's very retro and classic. It's black, so it goes with everything. And the length is below my knees, but not too long. I tried it on a few times at the store, with different shirts. Then, when I got home, I tried it with a shirt I already owned. When I went to zip it up, the zipper got stuck. Really stuck.

My boyfriend even got pliers out, but it wouldn't budge. One side would go through the slider, but the other side was stuck. And the zipper teeth had come apart, so what I had just zipped up had suddenly become unzipped without the slider moving. Annoying.

I ended up getting the skirt off, but the zipper was irreparable, as the slide had completely detached from the previously stuck side of teeth. So I got myself a new invisible zipper on Saturday, along with the appropriate zipper foot. Only it was one of those annoying plastic zipper feet, made especially for the brand and type of zipper I had to install. It took me about a half hour to figure out how to install it (thanks to this blog). My sewing area was cleaned right before I started this project. It's a mess again (although not as bad as before, I must say in my defense).



Then, when I went to sew it on, it kept getting stuck in the machine, probably because the directions want you to install it before seaming it. But this was an already-made garment, so I wasn't about to take out all the stitches on that seam just to install a nine inch zipper. My fabric was already a few pieces thick -- too much for the little plastic foot.



So I hand sewed it. I generally hate hand sewing, but I've done it at least twice in the past week. It's growing on me, I must say. Perhaps hand sewing isn't the evil, time-consuming chore I once thought it was. Or at least when you're making something look nice. You can't tell the zipper in my skirt has been replaced, let alone hand sewed. The inside is another story. I think it will take years of needle and thread work to get me to hand sew a straight line with even stitches.