Have you ever needed a zipper a certain length and couldn’t find it in your local craft store? Or you were in the middle of your project and looked at your zipper stash to find that your stash was full of zippers too long?
In this tutorial we’re going to show you how to shorten your zipper like a pro to whatever length you need. Get your measuring and cutting tools together and let’s go!
STEP 1: Mark the Desired Length When measuring the length of the zipper, you’re only going to measure from the top stop to the bottom stop. Don’t worry about the excess zipper tape on the top or bottom. Once you have the length, mark on the zipper where you want to shorten it.
STEP 2: Remove Top Stops and Slider When you’re removing the top stops, be as gentle as you can because you’re going to want to save the stops and re-use them when you’re finished with the shortening of the zipper. You’ll be removing both top stops from both sides. When the stops are off, then you’ll remove the slider. Keep track of the slider too, they’re easy buggers to lose.
STEP 3: Remove Teeth to the Desired Length Use your nippers or wire cutters to remove the teeth. Nylon coil teeth are really the hardest to remove, so don’t get frustrated. You’ll want to “mark” your desired length by removing the tooth at that point. Then work your way from the top down. For plastic molded or metal teeth, it’s simply cutting the tooth off the zipper tape. Once you’re done with one side, repeat on the other side.
After both sides of the teeth have been removed, you’ll “button” up the zipper with your fingers so that you can put the slider and stops back on.
STEP 4: Reinstall the Slider and Top Stops Replace the slider back on to the zipper tape. Slide the slider down to the teeth and pull down for the slider to engage the teeth. Take the zipper tape and pull the zipper tape in opposing directions to help the slider engage. You may have to do this a few times, but it will get the slider back on the teeth and functioning. After the slider is back on, take the top stops and reinstall them onto the zipper tape.
STEP 5: Trim Excess Tape Extensions to Size Trim off the extra tape to your heart’s desire.
STEP 6: Do Your Happy Dance! You did it. Great job!
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