Easy Fabric Zipper Pull Tutorial

I generally add a zipper pull to all of my purses before I ship them out to my customers, as an added surprise, but I realized at the last minute that I did not have any in stock for this purse.. Thus, I came up with a quick fix.  Here is a tutorial for an easy DIY fabric zipper pull.



GATHER YOUR MATERIALS

For this project you will need the following...

*8" x  1-1/4 piece of fabric
*Zipper with large pull hole
*Scissors or rotary cutter
*Cutting mat
*Iron

FOLD YOUR FABRIC

Take your 8" x 1-1/4" piece of and start by folding the short ends toward the wrong side of the fabric by ~1/4" and press.

Next, fold your strip of fabric in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press.

Then, unfold and then refold both long sides in until they meet at the middle line you just made.  Use your iron as you are folding to help keep the fabric in place.

Lastly, fold the entire strip of fabric over on itself one more time and press well.

STITCH 

Now, take your itty bitty strip of fabric to the sewing maching and stitch as close as you can to the open edge. This is pretty tricky, as it is so small.  The trick is to start far enough down the strip, that you can have one hand on the end to help guide it through.  Then you can backstitch to reach the ends.  In the picture I started too close to the beginning edge and it would not move.

Sometimes you may have an end that did not get tucked under very well.  If this happens, just clean it up with a few snips of the scissors and then add some Fray Check.  This is a glue that will dry clear and will prevent any ends from fraying.

INSTALL FABRIC PULL

Grab your fabric pull and insert it into the hole of the pull that is attached to your zipper.

Note about zipper pulls:   I always use zippers with 'large pulls'.  If you are buying zippers, ask your supplier if they have any b/c they are awesome!  They are the only ones I purchase. I just LOVE purses that have large pulls to grab, don't you??  It's makes life just a little easier, but it is also very important feature on concealed carry purses.  This zipper pull will be what the purse carrier will grab when they want to get into the gun compartment. You do not want to be grasping for a teeny pull in an emergency.

Next, grab the two ends of the fabric strip that you just inserted up through the hole and push them back down and now through the hole that was made from your fabric strip.

It helps if you leave as small of a hole as possible, b/c I have found that it is hard to adjust afterwards.

Give a good pull on the ends and you are finished!  Wasn't that easy?!

Now, you have a cute, custom made pull that you and your customers will love!

I'm so glad that I ran out of those cheaper zipper pulls!  Otherwise, I would have never tried making my own.  These are actually going to be so much better for my clients.  The pull is larger, thus easier to find in an emergency, and they are more secure in that they won't be ripped off with a quick frantic grab.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope this tutorial was helpful to you.  Let me know if there is something you don't understand in my tutorial and I'll try to help.

I have recently made a leather zipper pull, as well!  I hope to share it with you soon.

Check out all the great places I will be linking up this post this week on my LINK PARTY DIRECTORY PAGE.

Blessings,