What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[gtaus]

Is there a frugal way to salvage a zip up sweatshirt with hoodie that the zipper has been broken/lost and can no longer zip up? Dear Wife washed my work sweatshirt and when it came out of the washer and dryer, the zipper pull was lost. There is still a lot of potential life in that sweatshirt, but I know that buying a new zipper and having to pay someone to sew it in would be cost prohibitive.

Anybody out there with some alternatives to replacing the zipper - like fastening the sweatshirt some other way. To make it easier, I usually just have this sweatshirt worn under a jacket, so looks are not an issue. But I would like the sweatshirt to close shut because it's not nearly as warm now as it was when I zipped it up.

The zipper is broken and I cannot zip it up. I just need some way to get the sides to close together to keep me warm. BTW, today's low is expected to be -20F, so my question is just not an academic thought. And, of course, the more frugal the suggestion is probably the better option for me.

In the meantime, I'm looking at the thrift store to find a replacement work sweatshirt, but this time of year most of the winter stuff is pretty well picked through.

If nothing else, I'm thinking of this.... Turning a zippered sweatshirt into a sweatshirt.

 

[Sally PB]

Do you have a sewing machine? Putting in a zipper isn't the easiest, and I wouldn't recommend trying to hand sew a zipper in.

What about velcro? That would be doable by either hand or machine.

I had a wonderful heavy duty zip up hoodie that had to finally go, and wasn't worth taking to Goodwill. I wanted to recycle the fabric. I looked up fabric recycling and found lots and lots of sites... in the UK.

There is a chain of stores, H&M, that will take clothing donations, and anything they can't use gets recycled. Either resold, or repurposed for its fabric content, or broken down to use as insulation, etc.

https://www2.hm.com/en_us/sustainability-at-hm/our-work/close-the-loop.html

 

[gtaus]

Do you have a sewing machine? Putting in a zipper isn't the easiest, and I wouldn't recommend trying to hand sew a zipper in.

We do have a sewing machine, but neither Dear Wife nor I have ever tried replacing a zipper. In any case, I think a new zipper would cost way more than the old sweatshirt is worth.

What about velcro? That would be doable by either hand or machine.

I was thinking about hand sewing some velcro on the sweatshirt and using that as easy on/off buttons. Good to hear someone else thinks that might work.

If the little hole that the zipper pull swivels on is still there, use a needle and thread to sew on a piece of fabric or leather to pull with.

No, the zipper pull is completely lost. Nothing to attach a leather pull to for zipping. Thanks anyway.

 

[Sally PB]

I was thinking about hand sewing some velcro on the sweatshirt and using that as easy on/off buttons. Good to hear someone else thinks that might work.

When I was in 3rd grade, there was a girl whose mom made a lot of her clothes. She had a winter jacket that had velcro for the closure. This was in 1971, so velcro was a new thing.

Whenever she took off her jacket, it sounded like she was ripping it open. Every time, we all stopped and looked.

Ah, Memory Lane...

 

[saysfaa]

I would try tabs unless you have enough volume to overlap the sides by an inch or so beyond the zipper. Or you could sew a strip of material to make the overlap - if you haven't sewn knits, iron a piece of woven interfacing before sewing.

I find snaps the easiest (by far), then velcro, then buttons. Hooks are also easy but I don't think they would stay closed. I always find zippers easier than I expect and faster than alternatives even with lots of looking at directions but haven't put one into knit material.

 

[gtaus]

I find snaps the easiest (by far),

I'll check that out. I'm all for easy. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Sally PB]

I find snaps the easiest (by far)

Duh. Yup, snaps would be a lot easier to sew.

 

[gtaus]

Frugal Tip: If you have old clothes that you need to throw away, you might want to cut out that zipper and save it for later in a zipper repair kit to fix a broken zipper on some of your good clothes.

As to zippers, I watched a number of YouTube videos over the past few days and last night I came upon some videos that show how to repair a zipper that doesn't have a zipper slide. I just need to find the same size zipper slide from somewhere else and that could be used on my sweatshirt. Evidently, zipper slides have size numbers on the back. I also learned how to replace missing zipper teeth and the end stops. Doesn't look too hard.

One can also buy zipper repair kits, which I will also be looking into. But now that I know the right sized zipper, slides, end stops, and teeth can be harvested from other zippers, I think I'll be looking at some of the "free" clothing at the thrift store with harvesting those zippers in mind.

Perhaps even more important to me is that this same type of zipper repair is applicable to zippers on my work bags and totes. Sometimes I have a good work tool bag and the zipper fails. Now I think I could fix them if I can match up a same sized zipper. Funny how you learn one thing and can apply the same concept to other situations. BTW, my tool bags cost much more than an old sweatshirt, so I'll be looking to keep those larger, stronger zippers in my repair kit, too.

 

[gtaus]

Well, you never know how something might turn out. Dear Wife found the missing zipper slider in the dryer this evening! Since I had spent so much time learning how to repair zippers, it took me only a few minutes to fix the zipper on the sweatshirt. The slider was a little banged up, but still works OK. The sweatshirt is now as good as it was before it went into the wash.

Good thing I did not throw out the sweatshirt the other day when Dear Wife had given up all hope of me fixing it!

 

[igorsMistress]

Anyone here found a good use for shredded paper? I tried using it in my nest boxes and I'm not liking how it sometimes sticks to the eggs. I do like it under roost bars...but curious if anyone's tried it as mulch in the garden or deep litter in coops. If you did, what did you think of it? Any other good uses for it besides compost?

Compost it. Stick it in a toilet paper tube with a bit of dryer lint for a fire starter.