Could I fix my zipper by sewing another zipper on top?

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I have two Patagonia down jackets and I’ve broken the zipper on both. I’m wondering if it might work to simply sew another zipper on top of the old one. I would be afraid to take the jacket apart to remove the zipper and get down everywhere. I know you can send them to Patagonia for repair, but I wear them every day. Both of them at the same time.

If sewing a new zipper right on top of the old one is a possibility, where do you get the right type of zipper and have it be the right length? I don’t want to turn it into a pullover if at all possible.

[Jerry Adams]

maybe cut off the teeth and as much of the tape as possible?

sew the new zipper so the tape is on the inside, that wouldn’t be too bad

maybe removing the old zipper wouldn’t get down all over.  Try a little of it and stop if you judge that best.  Get seam ripper from local fabric store

#5 zipper from local fabric store, intended for outdoor wear, would be good

#3 coil zipper from thru-hiker.com would be a little lighter.  I haven’t noticed them to fail.

You want a one way separating zipper.- you can separate both sides of zipper to open jacket.  Probably don’t need two way separating, which you can also zip up from the bottom.

[Nick Smolinske]

Is there actual visible damage to the coil of the zipper, or does it just not work?  Because you might just need a new slider.  That’s an easy fix, no sewing required.  I haven’t done it on many jackets but I’ve done it on quite a few sleeping bags and tents.

[Gray T Kinnier]

Call Patagonia customer service. They will have you send it to them and then repair the zippers for free. I have had two zippers go  bad and both were repaired quickly and they did a very good job.

[Franco Darioli]

This may not apply here but since it is a common problem with tent zips too, I just posted to keep it in mind :

http://www.instructables.com/id/HOW-TO-FIX-A-ZIPPER-NO-REPLACE/

(prompted by Nick’s comment )

[Franco Darioli]

Double post

[Sam Haraldson]

The local repair shop in my town asks you if you simply want them to cut off the teeth and sew a new zipper onto the old zipper tape.  I’ve never done it myself though.  Trying the Instructables link is a good first step though.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Piper

Two broken zips? Either you are being brutal, or they may not be really broken. Often it is just the slider needing some TLC.
Photos would help.

Cheers

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

No, they are truly broken. One the metal part that holds the zipper pull on broke. You can’t put the zipper pull back on anymore. There’s no longer a place to attach it. I can sort of sometimes still zip it without the zipper pull but I think the last few teeth are bent or something so it’s really hit or miss. On the other jacket the little stopper at the bottom fell off. I sewed some thread around it so the zipper thing doesn’t fall off, and I can still zip it, but nothing holds the zipper together at the bottom so you can just pull it open. I get by pretty well this way but it’s not optimal.

I wear these jackets daily when I ride my motorcycle and one jacket is from 2008 and the other is at least 2 years old, so it’s to be expected I guess.

[Rich K.]

Patagonia has a nice section on their website describing how to do such repairs.

 

[Buck Nelson]

When I was hiking The Desert Trail the zipper blew out on my Montbell Alpine Light down jacket. I needed that jacket, the desert got cold at night! I stopped in some kind of sewing store in Lovelock, Nevada, right on the trail, and asked if they had a zipper the right length. They did.

When the store owner found out I was going to sew it on by hand she offered to let me use her machine. I took a look at the seam and it looked like a complicated process to pick out the zillions of tiny stitches and then deal with a possible snowstorm of down.

Instead, I used your idea. I cut the teeth off the one side as short as I could.  It looks like I singed the cut edge to keep it from fraying. The other zipper side was very short so I just left it in place. I sewed both zipper halves on top of the old zipper. I think it looks like new. The lady couldn’t believe a man had done the job so fast and neatly. She went and got her friend to show her.

I’ve used a similar method on other jackets where, for one reason or another, taking the seam apart didn’t make sense.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Piper

jacket 1: new slider
jacket 2: what you did.
I would not replace either zip myself.

cheers

[Author]

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