Monday, February 13, 2012

A Single Girl's Best Friend

zipping-dress On Friday, the Post Office delivered my latest dress purchase from Ideeli. I tried it on and it was a perfect fit, but I had a hard time pulling up the zipper in the back of the dress.

The zipper’s pull tab was tiny and hard to grip and no one else was home to help me.

I had this problem in the past with another dress and rigged up a “zipper helper” to do the job. So it was time to get out my zipper helper again.

My zipper helper is simply a piece of string and a big safety pin.

I attach the safety pin to the zipper pull tab, loop the string through the closed safety pin, and pull the thread up to close the zipper.

I see now that they sell zipper helpers online and here are instructions to build your own.

So, keep on zippin'.

10 comments:

  1. So simple. Thank you for the link Stana. I must say my flexibility has improved by doing without but now that this easy solution is available, I'll just have to do exercises instead. :)

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  2. Dear Stana,

    There are devices to greatly ease zippering a zipper with a hole in the zipper pull tab. But some "high fashion" dresses and gowns have a tiny smooth solid zipper pull tab without a hole. I have yet to find a device that really works well with these. I have one device with a clamp and long handle, but it is very difficult to use, and it's unreliable (slips off the smooth pull tab most tries).

    I wonder if any of your readers has found a reliable "zipper helper" for those smooth, solid zipper pull tabs.

    Any inventors out there?

    Love,

    Sheila.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sheila,

      The Zipper Pull by Ms. Dress Up works in all invisible zippers. Check it out at www.msdressup.com

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  3. Like all the best ideas nice and simple, on a number of occassions I have had trouble, worst is when trying on a dress at the shop, getting it o OK but then not being able to undo the zip!

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  4. Hi Stana, I love your blog. Check out suddenlee.com. Since you live in the northeastern US, check them out. They are perfect for femulators not comfortable shopping at a mall. Basically, using their site you can shop at the local mall and they will pick it up for you and ship it to you, saving you the trouble of actually visiting the mall. Just a thought!

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  5. Stana, absolutely loved your post about zipper pulls! I've worn dresses that zip in back forever because that's what was available. Living alone made it tough, thanks for such a simple zipper tool!

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  6. Hello, I am the Independent Woman who invented the ZipHer, the zip-up solution sold on www.PrimaProductions.com Now newly released (by popular demand) is an extra-sturdy ZipHer! It is 6 inches longer and has a heavier ball chain for those taller or stronger customers. Go to the Order pull-down menu on PrimaProductions.com and order Extra Long ZipHer. It was designed by a 6'2" engineer who sewed a zipper in the back of his flannel shirt to test it!

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  7. The Best Friend (www.bestfriendzip.com) was created just for this, now you can zip up completely ON YOUR OWN, Happy Zipping ladies!

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