The old lady at Goodwill showed me how to fix my jacket zipper with a paperclip

I was about to toss a good winter coat because the zipper pull broke off. An older woman named Marge saw me fuming and grabbed a paperclip from her purse. She bent it into a little loop and threaded it through the zipper slider in like 30 seconds. Has anyone else picked up a random skill from a stranger at a thrift store?

2 comments

2 Comments

ellis.diana2d ago

Okay but Marge was right about the paperclip trick though not quite the way people usually think. The paperclip goes through the slider's little hole and then you pinch it tight so it acts as a new pull tab. Most people just shove the paperclip through and expect it to work but you have to bend it into a specific shape or it'll just slide right back out. I've seen way too many people struggle with this because they think any old paperclip will do and it has to be the thicker ones not the flimsy cheap ones. Also you gotta make sure the loop is facing the same direction as the original tab or the zipper will still feel awkward to pull. That woman probably knew her stuff from fixing zippers on coats for decades before those plastic sliders got so common.

thompson.tyler1d agoProlific Poster

Bro I learned this the hard way last winter when my favorite hoodie zipper broke and I spent like 20 minutes just jamming a paperclip in there before looking up a video. You absolutely need the thick ones from a stapler or something or it just bends flat.