ZIPPERS

That is NOT a job I would recommend for a beginner, nor is it one that should be done by hand (unless your hand stitching skills are equivalent to those mastered by home sewist in the 19th century). A pants fly has several parts, each must be handled correctly to get a good result. Take a look here to see what I mean:

around at a local dry cleaners for one with an on site alterationist, and have it done properly. Beverly

By hand is the best way to install a zipper.

Before proceeding, some questions as to what you already know:

Do you know the back stitch? Google turned up a picture of backstitch in progress at

The picture shows "closed back stitch" in which you put the needledown through the same hole where it was brought up for the previousstitch.

Oops. Virtual Magnifying Glass shows me that it's actually "spaced back stitch" -- instead of going back into the same hole, one or two threads are left between stitches. Spaces the same length as the stitches are more common.

Here's a diagram of the closed backstitch, which shows how it looks when finished, but the first picture gives a better idea of how to work it:

that this picture shows the stitch worked over two threads of thefabric. This is the shortest permissible sewing stitch; catchanything less than two full threads, and the stitch is likely to tearthe fabric. (But when blind hemming, you can cheat and go over theintersection of two threads, creating a stitch as short as if it wentover one.)

I prefer spaced back stitch for sewing in zippers -- it shows less than closed back stitch, and on the multiple layers of a zipper, it's easier to work.

Because spaced back stitch leaves a row of tiny dots on the right side, it is called "hand picking" when done on expensive garments.

If I haven't confused you yet, the interrogation will continue.

Joy Beeson

Joy, I agree, for women's clothing, especially eveningwear, and ESPECIALLY made-from-scratch eveningwear, hand pricking a zipper is the best way.

But I *think* OP is a man ("George" Smith), and he is asking about *replacing* the zipper in a pair of pants, which I assumed would be a pair of man's trousers with a fly. Leaving aside the difficulty of creating a finished look on the repaired pants similar to the original using HAND STITCHING, I think opening the waist band, removing the defective zipper (which would include unpicking the fly and flyshield), trying to hand-stitch a replacement zipper in place, attempting to top stitch the fly, then re-stitching the waistband is probably beyond the capabilities of an inexperienced "never tried to sew in [his] life" sewist.

George, if I have misunderstood your request, I apologize.

Beverly

It would require a book-length series of posts at best.

I disagree that sewing by hand would make it *harder* to reproduce the original look -- save in the sense of taking more time to do the work. When sewing by hand, you can re-do the top-stitching through the original holes.

But I agree that if the pants are worth the effort of changing the zipper, he should take them to a tailor.

If DH damaged a zipper, I'd send him back to Big R to buy new pants. Carhart, I'd consider mending -- but I don't think a Carhart zipper would fail. Have you noticed: a shirt that has spare buttons sewn to the tail never sheds a button? There's more than Murphy at work.

On the other hand, finding someone who is both competent and willing to repair garments can be very difficult (how many of *us* have posted "not with a ten-foot pole!"?) , and George Smith just might turn out to have a natural bent.

George, might you happen to have a garment with a small tear, and some matching fabric suitable for patching it -- just as a warm-up?

Better yet, a ripped seam or a loose button.

Joy Beeson

Sure lots of "us" refuse/loath alterations. ;-}

But there are folks who do like to do it, and/or are very good at it, and/or make a living at it. JMHO, George would be well served to seek out a pro if the pants are

*expensive*, but as you point out, buy a new pair if they are *cheap*. Replacing a fly zipper is usually not worth the effort in a low-cost garment, IMHO.

Beverly

It has been more than 10 years since I paid $10 to have a zipper replaced in a pair of DH uniform pants. It would have cost close to $40 to replace the pants, so the $10 was worth it in polyester pants. Barbara in FL