The Sewing Place
Tools of the Trade => The Haberdashery => Topic started by: arrow on September 07, 2017, 15:06:04 PM
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I have two small rucksacks (bagpacks?), it's made of very light nylon, the sort you can fold away and keep at the back of a bike saddle. It's in some ways very well made, enforced with nylon webbing in all the the right places, solid enough click-in-place latches, cleverly made with compartments and functional shape.
The not so good are the seams, they slippery nylon unravels in places and the stitching is not the best. I have sewn over twice or more to enforce it in places, seams I have replaced with double line if stitching. It seems to hold up well now, but the two zippers doesn't zip together anymore.
After all the enforcments I have done I'm thinking it might be worth replacing the zippers. It's a light weight thing, doesn't hold much, but it's easily a bit of weight if it's filled up with a few groceries or whatever I end up bringing with me along the way. The zippers are plastic, the type you cut off by the meter and stitch one end to hold together. They worked fine when new, but they started acting up after only a couple of weeks. Are there dependable replacement zippers?
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Are the zips dress weight https://jaycotts.co.uk/pages/regular-zip-for-skirts-dresses-and-more
or coat weight which are heavier or you can get https://jaycotts.co.uk/collections/two-way-plastic-tooth-open-end-zips
which can be one or two way
Have a look at Jaycotts selection to see all the various types
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Thanks for the link, I was looking on ebay (sellers usually ship abroad) and became a bit confused. I have had very good both plastic and metal zippers on jackets, so I know it's all about finding type made for the purpose. I bookmarked Jacotts. I'm looking at the metal zipper and two way, thinking they are the most solid ones. I'm not sure I can just cut to length sew across the end, probably breaking needles and other problems. I have to do a bit of research, either way, I'll go for one of them.
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I think what's originally used is nylon coil type. Are those prone to not work after a while? They soon started comming appart and gradually got worse.
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They do come in different weights a dress weight is narrower than a jacket weight which is usually open ended.. ebay often sell them in size 3 and size 5 in continuous length.. we own a knapsack which folds into a small pouch and its zip is quite fine but I suppose they use fine ones because they don't weight too much
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Lots of info about zips here (http://www.ykkfastening.com/products/types/s_zipper.html) and here. (http://www.sewmamasew.com/2010/09/guide-to-zippers/)