What In The World?? Zippers!

You may remember from my last post I received quite a few zippers in the envelope of random sent from Heather at Dollar Store Crafts.  These zippers have been keeping me up at night, what could I do that hasn't already been done a bazillion times by the other online crafty folks.  I have seen zipper necklaces, and zipper flowers, exposed chunky zippers in place of invisible zippers on skirts and pants.  Well last night inspiration struck.  I didn't write down my idea, which usually means it will be forgotten by the morning, but when I woke up, I still remembered. It is craft destiny!  Insert really epic music HERE!

The Zipper Cuff

Here is what you need

• Cardboard roll- I used a paper towel roll
• 4 zippers, in coordinating colors- they need to be a few inches longer than it takes to go around your wrist
• Ribbon- I used two colors but you could use one, use colors that go with your zippers
• Hot glue
• Elmer's glue

 *** A note on supplies and colors.  Everything I used I had on hand.  However if I were to do this craft again, I would make some changes.  I would use different color zippers.  I would probably go toward neon, or more bad ass colors like gray, black or gold.  One of my new years resolutions was to be more bad ass...  I thought that yellow and the pink and teal would look good together but I think that the finished product looks slightly like an Easter egg.  I might have used black or gray ribbon for the center stripe and the ends if I had some. I would also make the cuff a little less wide, I am not sure my little wrists can pull it off...

Here is what I did-

1. Cut the cardboard to size you want your cuff to be.  I made mine quite wide, still not sure how I feel about my length.  The skinnier yours is the closer the zippers will be, or you can use less zippers.


2. My cuff didn't quite go all the way around my wrist so I added a bit of extra cardboard the same width to make is a bit bigger.  I glued on the extra with regular Elmer's glue.

 3. Cut the tops off your zipper right below the metal part that holds them together.  Take off the zipper pull and separate each zipper into two pieces. 

4.Remember you have a lot of laundry to do, and go throw it in the washer.  This step is optional...

5. Set your zipper design.  I decided I wanted to do stripes with the pink and teal zippers I was sent from Heather.  The pattern certainly doesn't have to be symmetrical like mine, it could be totally random.  I set the pattern out on the floor, with the zipper part facing out and set my cuff base on top to check out the fit.

6. Next I glued a strip of yellow grosgrain ribbon down the middle.  I would not do it this way again.  In the end it looks better to have the ribbon down the middle cover your zipper sides, not the other way around.

7. Now I started gluing.  Working from the outside in, glue the zippers down in the pattern you chose.

Leave the ends hanging off a bit. We will finish and trim them at the end. 

As you begin to layer the zippers you might notice that the fabric sides are bubbling up a bit.

As you glue press firmly down and slide your finger to even out the zippers.

You can also add a tiny amount of glue to keep everything flat.

7. Go put your laundry in the dryer.  Again this step is optional

8.  Once you have all the zippers layered, add the ribbon over of the middle.  Also trim the ends of the zippers and the ribbon to be flush with the edges of the cuff.

9. To finish the raw edges, I encased the edges with white ribbon.  To do so, I put a line of hot glue on the very edge on the zipper side and placed the ribbon edge on it.  Then I put a glue line down the inside of the cuff and folded the ribbon over and pressed the other edge of the ribbon into the glue.

10. Trim the edges of the white ribbon and burn quickly to seal them.  Be careful not to catch the rest of your project on fire. Wait, I think you probably had figured out that you shouldn't burn up your bracelet...

11. Now depending on your cuff base, and how large you made it you could have a slight problem.  The weight of the zippers and glue was causing my cuff to uncuff.  As in it was getting less circly.  So I glued a part of a rubber band to keep the cuff together.  

12. Unveil you finished product to all your friends!!