Sunday 9 January 2011

Z is for Zip

Z for Zips


Image from http://inventors.about.com



Where would be without the humble zip? So much quicker and easier to fasten than buttons most of us wear an item with a zip on a daily basis.

Whitcomb Judson was responsible for inventing the clasp locker (he is pictured to the right, his clasp locker below) which loosely resembles the modern zip. It was patented in 1893 but had little success in the market.

Almost 20 years later the Universal Fastener Company’s head designer Gideon Sundback was given the task of improving Judson’s design and designed the modern zipper in 1913.

Image from http://inventors.about.com/
Judson's Clasp locker





The actual name ‘zipper’ came from the B.F Goodrich compant who used Sundback’s fastener on rubber boots, where their referred to it as a zipper and the name stuck, often abbreviated to ‘zip’.

But that’s enough of the history side of things, zips have often posed a problem to sewists when it comes to the fitting of them. So i’ve gathered together a few useful tutorials to help you successfully fit that zip.


Concealed Zips

We have a great tutorial on site for fitting invisible/concealed zips written by Julia of Sew Curvy Corsetry:



There is another good tutorial on the Clever Nesting site: http://www.clevernesting.com/2009/06/invisible-zipper-tutorial-from-whipstitch/  


If bag making is more your thing then check out this zipper tutorial on the U handbag blog:


Image from Sew Mama Sew



There is also a video tutorial for fitting concealed zips that can be found on the Sewing Machine World Online website here:





Standard Zip


Sewing Machine world online (who worked with Suffolk Sewing School) to produce their video tutorials, also have a tutorial for inserting a simple zip:



Plus there’s a good tutorial over on the Sew Mama Sew blog here: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=87  


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