Winter Jacket Zipper

Project:
Replacing the zipper of my winter jacket

Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Medium

Process:
When I originally bought my winter jacket, the zipper was an area of concern because the teeth were very fine. If I had to guess where it would break first that main zipper would have been the place. So just like I predicted, it started acting up on me a while back and I knew I'd have to do something about it.

Now, winter jackets are not that expensive. I think I paid $125 bucks for this one and I really could just go buy a new one but I figured hey, why not trying to fix it. When I found out that a replacement zipper was only $9 bucks I decided to give it a try.

First I had to take the old zipper out, which was a pain in the butt, then sew the new one back in. The only thing that made it a bit tricky is that since it is a winter jacket there are various layers that had to be sewn together at the right spot. Since I don't have a commercial sewing machine and I'm not a seamstress or whatever they're called if they're guys I did one layer at a time.

I almost gave up after one half took me an hour and a half but then I calculated the savings and even if the other side took me another hour and a half, I'd still end up getting over $40/hr in actual savings for my labor so I decided to go for it even though I don't particularly enjoy sewing.

Surprisingly, the second half only took me about half an hour so for 2hrs of work and $9 bucks I have a virtually brand new jacket.

Pictures:

Diagram of fabric layers

The faulty (original) zipper

Taking the old zipper out

After one side was done

Close-up of the old and the new zipper

The top of the new zipper after one side was done

The final product; good as new

Tools:
Sewing machine
Sharp knife
Needles

Materials:
Zipper

Cost:
$8.81

Time:
2hrs

Savings:
$126.80

Conclusion:
Everything seems good and the zipper works great.