Help! My Luggage Zipper Is Broken!

Here's a quickie. I did it this afternoon.

I bought this Delsey 25" suitcase on ebay for under $20. It was originally $300! The buyer had returned it because the zipper pull broke off. It is super lightweight and packed with features (like an indicator to tell you if it's overweight), so I decided to buy it and then figure out the zipper problem later.

You can see here that there is no zipper pull on this front pocket. Everything else and all the other zippers were fine. There was no way I could fix this zipper by adding a new one because...it would have looked terrible if I could have even found a new zipper to put on it due to the fact that I'd have to hand sew it. Plus, there's no telling how much a luggage zipper would cost by itself. Probably as much as I paid for the luggage!

Something else had to be done.

I got out some trusty brown packing paper and started drafting a pattern to make a flap to cover the zipper.

Then, I used my pattern and traced onto some black leather.

I cut it out.

Then, I glued it in place. This was not the permanent fix because glue would have easily ripped off over time. The glue was just to hold the leather in place because you can't pin leather in place. (It makes holes when you do that.)

Enter the needle and thread. (Those are rubber finger tips for pulling needles through tough fabrics like leather. I couldn't find my thimble.)

I stitched the leather in place.

From the inside.

That took a little time, but when I was done, it looked pretty good!

Here is the flap up so I can get into the pocket.

At some point, I may put a button or magnetic closure on it, but for now, at least it doesn't look as bad! (I will be putting a luggage protector over it when I check it at airports, just in case you were wondering.)

Très luxe, no?

The End!

Refashioning: Making Clothing More Functional - Replacing a Panel

Sometimes what keeps you from wearing an item isn't the fit or the dimension. Sometimes, there is just one odd thing about it that you just wish were different. Like the dress below, for instance. I loved everything about it, except the weirdly patterned panel right in the front. It was just obnoxious enough that I would never wear the dress like that.

Using the lining from the dress I modified in a prior blog post, I cut out a piece of black lining fabric. I wasn't precise in my cutting. I just made sure the piece was bigger than the panel I wanted to cover.

Then, I just pinned the panel over the horrid panel, folding it flush as I went.

A close up of one of the corners.

Then, I sewed over it with a straight stitch.

This was fine, except, there were some little tiny gaps. Most people might not notice them, but I sure would. . .

So I went back over the panel again--this time with a zig zag stitch.

Perfect!

The End!

Make a Sewing Machine Cover

I woke up this morning realizing that I should have done this project years ago...It is really important to keep your sewing machine covered when not in use so dust and water don't get in it.

The whole project took about 30 minutes to complete.

I could have used any fabric, but most sewing machine covers are made out of some kind of plastic-y material, so I found some sparkly table cloth material I had...(You know how you all have sparkly table cloth material around randomly?)...Yeah, so I used that. Anyways, I folded it in half and measured my sewing machine's depth and width and added that together. That is the baseline you see below. Then I measured how tall the machine is and made that the height measurement of my cover. (Actually, I added about half and inch to each measurement so the cover wouldn't be too tight, and I added another half inch for seam allowance.) Then I measured in half the width measurement at the top on both sides and also added half the width measurement up to the middle section as you can see below as well. (That was hard to describe. Hopefully, the picture below is worth the thousand words that I don't want to write.)

                                       

When I think about rotary cutters, I think, "Why did I ever cut anything with scissors?...What an ignorant youth I used to be..."

I first sewed the one side together. Then I sewed the top line together. Finally, I pleated and sewed the top sides and Voila! I was done. (I pleated the top of the cover because the top of my machine is narrower than the bottom.) I could have hemmed the bottom, but. . .I didn't. Maybe later, I guess. I used the finished edge for the bottom.

 

This cover is...a little fabulous. I was going to embroider something obnoxious on it like, "Sew What!??" and then...realized that it's obnoxious enough on its own.

Here is a close up of the side pleats.

The End!