Sunday, August 29, 2010

zip zip

Look at my killer zucchini and perfect tomatoes! I made these! 

Hey remember how yesterday I was all, "I'm sewing zippers into silk pillows, and harvesting tomatoes, and zucchini, from my garden, and then tomorrow, I think I'll bake a cake (chocolate zucchini cake!), do some laundry, and roast a pork shoulder for pulled pork sandwiches..."? Yeah, well I did all that. I need a good marinara recipe so I can get those tomatoes all cooked up before they sit in the fridge too long, and become my undying shame. 




I ran into one itty bitty problem along the way. I'm hoping it's not fatal. I got Pickel of "Swimming in Brine's" zipper tutorial a little too late. I had already sewn 2.5 sides, leaving the zipper side for last. Which is basically the opposite of what you are supposed to do. Since I was going over old seams on delicate fabric, I didn't want to risk tearing the silk if I pulled them out again, so I forged ahead. I sewed the zipper in, and everything was going just fine until I remembered that you are supposed to unzip the zipper so you don't end up with an inside-out pillow tomb. So I unzipped it. Only I got a little overzealous forgetting that the zipper is SUPPOSED to have a stop and not unzip all the way to the end, and I pulled the tab clear off. I tried to get it back on for about, oh I don't know 45 minutes, and then I contemplated seppuku. WHY DOES LIFE HAVE TO BE SO HARD. jk... no I'm not...


I was able to jam the end of the zipper in the one side, but not the other. HELP! 

Someone please tell me this is not an irrevocable problem. There must be a zipper trick. Or a zipper man who can fix this sort of thing. PLEASE?! The rest of the pillow turned out so nicely, and it's SO soft, and if the zipper (my first) is the death of it, I might cry. Ok, I won't cry, but I will be really really really mad. 


The fabric is from an old Anokhi pour Simrane sarong that got a tear in it. It's all bleached and old and SO soft. Perfect pillow fabric. I used it on the side with batting, so it'll be a little lofty too. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

6 comments:

  1. oh dear oh dear.
    the second side of the zipper should feed back through like the first one. i have never tried this, but put some heavy-duty thread on a needle, attach it to the end of the zipper (sew through it and tie a knot), then thread the needle through the zipper thingy and hopefully the side of the zipper will follow.

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh no please don't put those beautiful garden tomatoes in the fridge! That makes them go all mealy. They like room temp.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Pickel! And anonymous fridge commenter, I'm taking them out right now!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. the fridge might make tomatoes mealy, but in the heat of south africa, I'd rather take chances with mealy than soggy. seriously, the heat here can turn a tomato flat in 2 days. probably not suppose to wait that long to eat it. ACTUALLY - you are suppose to harvest as you need, then leaving them outside is fine because you'll use them in time.

    Yeah well.

    As for the pillows, I do hope you get them right. they seem lovely and it would be such a shame to NOT have the pillows after all that effort.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You may have already solved this problem, but I would try cutting 1/4 - 3/8ths of an inch of the teeth off of the bad side of the zipper so that you have enough space to slide the slide back on unencumbered, if you will. If you are careful and patient it should work. Then take some thread and fashion a zipper stop so the slide stays on. You will lose some room in the opening, but if you are not going to be removing the covers that often, it will not matter. Cut off enough so that you can get a grip and put some tension on the bad side of the zipper from the bottom after you feed it through the slide and try to rezip. Amazingly difficult to try to explain in writing. I hope it helps now or in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I saw you on youtube(muffin top) and I think you are genius! I can't wait to see what else you come up with! Cyn from CYNSPIRATION

    ReplyDelete