Battle of the zipper

It was an ugly battle. There was blood spilled, curses spoken. Sweat and tears. Oh...why did there need to be so many seams in this coat?!

Skinny-Boy has this coat for his hockey team. We get his coat oversized so he can wear it for several years. The team players are "encouraged" to wear matching jackets to each game so that they all look alike, so it is a fairly necessary thing for him to have. A few days ago, he was putting it on to wear to school, and the zipper broke. As in, completely broke, not fixable.

Buying a new jacket is....well, out of our price range at this moment. The jackets are a bit dear. About $65 per coat. Shocking, I know. But, I have a sewing machine and I was thinking "oh, how hard can it be to replace a zipper?" Now I know---a lot harder than it looks!

Quick once over of the zipper, there are two top stitches on the zipper. Okay, I rip those out, figure that the zipper will then come right off. Umm....not exactly. I can't just tear at the fabric, because I need to put a new zipper in! So I am being careful as I hunt for other seams. There are TWO MORE seams hidden around there holding the zipper in. Good golly!! It took me over two hours to rip out one side of the zipper and pin the new one in. I could not believe it.

And then, tonight, I got to do the same thing with the other side. The whole while, reminding myself that if I were to BUY a new coat, it would equal at least one days worth of labor or more (if you count for taxes withheld, etc).

I got it done. Got to use the zipper foot on my machine (a first!). And my first zipper without anyone looking over my shoulder.

There is satisfaction in fixing things. And the coat looks pretty spiffy.