zipper removal

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Help, the Kid wants to know if anyone has a good way to remove a zipper from a dress. She wants to add hook and eyes to one of her mother's old dresses to make it more period correct. She is downstairs with the dress hollering up the stairwell for me to list this. She also wants better directions on how to add the hook adn eyes. Green-eyed Gypsy gave her some advice, but she is still confused.
Chihuahua Floyd, for Chihuahua Floyds Kid

[Singing Bear]

A good 'ol seam ripper should do the trick. An Exacto knife would work also, but gotta be real careful when cutting. She may end up taking apart more than she wanted, but that's what will usually happen when removing stitching at certain areas. Usually it's a hem that'll come undone. That hook and eye thingy is beyond me. Isn't it just hand stitched onto the garment right across from each other? Why, I thought the zipper was period correct for the latter part of the 19th century. :)

[Lizzie Marie]

best way to remove a zipper????very carefully :rofl :rofl :rofl
okay, depending on how it is put in, ie with lining or not, take a seam ripper and very gently remove the stitches that hold the zipper in....as for the hook and eyes, not sure if GG told her about the tape or just the hooks and eyes...

[Carolina Chipmunk]

I dunno if RIPPING AS HARD AS I CAN WITHOUT DAMAGING FABRIC most of the time would be consider very carefully or not...

My grandmother had set that up as the hem, so I had to work with that a bit. Between this dress and my bag I made yesterday, I have used my sewing machiene more than ever before!

The top was tricky to hem and add the eyes. I only have the top set on because of how hard it is. I am on a well deserved break. :D The top one I had to sew through four layers of thick material and a couple of layers of rick-rack because of the hemming and stuff. My machiene about gave out on me on that part, and I broke a few needles on the hand sewing part, including my needle I punch leather with.

Oh, something puzzled me. My bobbin thread knotted up real bad. What causes that?

[Singing Bear]

My bobbin thread knotted up real bad. What causes that?

Did it get all knotted up in the bobbin?...or on it's way to the needle? What kind of machine are you using?

[Carolina Chipmunk]

On it's way to the needle. My sewing machine? Um, I think a Riccar model...at least I think that's the type...

[Singing Bear]

Is there a separate bobbin "cartridge" that you place the bobbin in then install into the machine? If so, there should be some type of mechanism to adjust the thread tension. Just turn the screw a 1/4 turn at a time. My Bernina has such a bobbin cartridge and is easy to make tension adjustments.

If it's a drop in type, you should still have some way to adjust the thread tension. It'll be a bit similar as it will also have a small screw to turn and make adjustments. If you can find it, do the same 1/4 turn at a time.

Oh, in either case, 1/4 turn to tighten the tension. Sounds like you don't have enough at the bottom.

Also, I've seen this happen a couple times with both my Bernie and an old Singer. You know how the top thread has to be threaded up, down, around this and into that? Make sure the thread is where it should be, especially the upper thread tensioner. On Singers, the thread can be put on the wrong side of the tensioner. On my Bernie, the thread can slip out of the arm that goes up and down. In either case, it messes up the upper thread tension and can make a mess at the bobbin.

Hope this helps. I make kites and come across these problems. When competing in kitemaking comps one wants as perfect a stitch as possible. :)

[Coffee Em]

Sometimes a machine is inclined to pull the bobbin thread back into the machine when it starts sewing from a full stop. Try holding both the upper and the bobbin threads firmly somewhere out back of the presser foot for the first couple of stitches. Don't tug on them, just hang onto 'em. That may help with the bobbin tangling.

Cheers,
Coffee Em

[Singing Bear]

Good catch, Coffee Em. Forgot about that one. I usually leave a fairly long leader for top and bottom threads to hold onto. Yeah, if you let it go, it gets sucked into wherever and you get a nice bird's nest going. :)

[Carolina Chipmunk]

I don't think that was my problem because I have always been a little paraniod about that happening --- I got that from my grandmother, she taught me how to sew --- so I leave WAY TOO MUCH on the ends...I need to work on that...

[Lizzie Marie]

Could be bobbin tension, dull needle, tension on upper thread....I just hate when that happens......I get frustrated and after I have ripped it out 2-3 times, I stop and go back the next day and usually it doesn't happen....who knows? :re

[Carolina Chipmunk]

I hope my needle isn't dull! I just had to replace it because it broke on me! I am pretty sure that the tension is WAY off, but the instrution manuel (where ever it is) was about Greek to me, and my grandmother when she owned it could hardly figure it out.

[Coffee Em]

Sometimes you'll get a needle with a manufacturing flaw, a burr in the eye or a nick in the point. You've just changed the needle (always put in a new needle at the start of every project, and more often if you're sewing through heavy fabric or fabric with metallic threads in it), and suddenly everything's going wrong--broken top thread, snarled bobbin thread, irregular stitching. "Well, at least I know it can't be the needle," you say...and of course, after trying everything else, yep, it's that new needle that turned out to be a lemon. They show up rarely, but you'll get one now and then.

(Oh, and is the above a true story, based on personal experience? That involved about two hours of good sewing time spent on troubleshooting? Nah, couldn't be. Ahem.)

Other thing to know about: thread gets old. It can dry out, or suffer from exposure to sun or heat. If you're using a spool of thread that's more than a couple years old, reel out a length of it and give it a tug. If it breaks easily, it's gotten old and tired, and should be replaced. (You could say the same about me, but I ain't goin' without a fight!)

I like to squeeze a little line of Sewer's Aid, a silicone fluid, down the length of the spool of thread and the bobbin when I thread my machine. As the thread passes through the machine, it smooths out the thread paths with the silicone residue, and it puts a little extra moisture back in dry thread.

Cheers,
Coffee Em