Replies

1. 
   mimi | Aug 18, 2006 05:19am | #1

   You can buy seperating zippers for this that work very well and are very sturdy.  Hope that helps!

   mimi

2. 
   Becky-book | Aug 18, 2006 03:12pm | #2

   Zippers!  love 'em or hate 'em!   they are great when they work and aggravating when they fail!

   Is it absolutely necessary to replace the zipper?  some troubles can be repaired.

   I assume that you have a broken major zipper (not just one of the smaller pockets).  It is hard to give precise directions w/o seeing your situation, but the basic idea is to look carefully at how the zipper is inserted now, carefully pick out all the stitches that hold it in and replace it with a new zipper of the same strength (heavy duty), replacing all the stitching as it was before "surgery".

   Since you are doing a retro-fit it may be impossible to machine stitch everything so be prepared to do some by hand.  I would probably hand baste it in place before machine stitching in any case.

   If you were to figure the cost of your time, is the back pack worth repairing? or is it a favorite that has emotional significance for a school child?  I seem to have more questions than answers today!

   Hope this helps,

   Becky

1. 
   Teaf5 | Aug 20, 2006 04:27am | #3

   Sometimes asking questions ahead of time can save a lot of headaches!

   I recently replaced a small zipper in my son's backpack, but the spacing was so tight that I had to leave one half of the old one in it in order to have enough fabric to attach the new one.  I had to sew both ends by hand, but it didn't take very long. 

   It worked for about three months, long enough to finish out the school year.  The stresses that broke the first one broke the replacement,too, so he's found a new pack for this year.

   When an old pack wears out, I cut off and save the straps and buckles for other uses.  I'm always grateful to have a few of those great buckles on hand when making something useful; they're strong, convenient, and I don't have to drive to the fabric store to finish my project!

3. 
   marbis | Oct 16, 2012 09:38am | #4

   replace it with

   the new system

   http://www.fix-a-zipper.com

   Lovely and simple system!!! Everybody can do it :-)