project: sixteen zippers

I never intended to start a zipper collection.

When I buy a zipper, I purchase a specific length in a specific color to go with specific fabric for a specific garment or project. Sometimes I end up not sewing the item I envisioned. It happens, right? Yes. But in my life, it happens too often. Somehow, over the past decade, I have bought 16 zippers that I have never removed from their packaging. Sixteen!

In my defense, about half of those have been purchased in the past year, and I still have every intention of making the garments that they are intended for. But there are others whose original purpose I can’t even remember. When I discovered recently that I had 16 brand spankin’ new zippers in my stash, I knew it was time to do a little more sewing and a little less shopping at Jo-Ann.

And so, project: sixteen zippers is the story of my accidental zipper collection and the garments they will be sewn into as this little adventure unfolds.

Let’s meet the cast of characters:

The 7-inch zippers are the most predictable and least intimidating, as they are all destined for skirts. They all happen to be very basic colors like black, white, brown, gray, and navy.

The rest of the zippers are a bit more interesting and unexpected. Twelve-inch lilac? Fourteen-inch dark teal? Don’t worry, the three white zippers in this bunch will keep things from getting too crazy. Almost all of these longer zippers were purchased within the past year, and I think all but one are intended for dresses, either for me or for Magen. Dresses make me nervous.

So that’s what I have to work with.

I’m eager to reduce the number of zippers in my accidental collection (and use up some of my fabric stash!) as I work my way through project: sixteen zippers. And of course I’ll be glad to add more skirts and dresses to my wardrobe. I’ll be sure to show you each item as I complete it, but don’t expect frequent progress reports. It’s going to take a while to sew sixteen garments with zippers.

I haven’t decided yet which of the zippers I’ll start with, but ideally, I’d like to be wearing that 14-inch teal zipper in about two weeks. Wish me luck!

(I am not affiliated with Coats and Clark, nor have they compensated me for this publicity. However, if they knew anything about this project, I’m sure they’d want to encourage you to start a zipper collection of your own.)