A week ago, I embarked on my first attempt at adding a zipper slider to an existing zipper on a jacket to make it two-way. While it worked, the result was far from ideal, and I was nervous about doing it for my favorite leather jacket next. Luckily, I had some time to think about it, because the parts for this one took a week to ship all the way across the country, from a company called Fine Leatherworking in California.

(If I could find where to buy these things locally in person, I would. Oddly, I had to order my #3 silver slider for the first jacket and #5 gold slider for this one simultaneously from 2 different companies because I couldn’t find a supplier online that sold both options with a close enough match to my existing sliders, which I wanted to keep.)

What I forgot to mention last time is that I had first tried to sand down the insertion pin manually with sandpaper, hoping to get it thin enough to fit through the top slider. I managed to get as far as scuffing it. It didn’t occur to me to borrow my other half’s handheld Dremel rotary tool until after I’d abandoned the idea and removed the insertion pin altogether.

So, here is take two, with one part spared.

Step 1: Using nose pliers, remove the top stop from the side of the zipper tape with the slider.

Step 2: Slide the slider off from the top of the zipper tape.

Step 3: Slide the new slider on, facing the opposite direction from the first slider.

Step 4: Slide the first slider back on.

Step 5:

• If you have access to a power tool for sanding: Wear safety goggles and hold the zipper firmly without touching the metal parts. Avoid inhaling metal powder.
  Sand the insertion pin down to remove the slope leading up to the wide part. A word of caution, however—as the pin is essentially hollow, the material is already quite thin and may crack at the corners. Maybe with practice you can get it just right, but I went a bit too far on this one.
• If you don’t have access to a sanding device, you probably have to remove the insertion pin (with nose pliers), but please let me know if there are better ways.

Step 6: Once the insertion pin is able to go through both sliders (or has been removed), zip the zipper all the way up to see the number of zipper teeth by which it is now misaligned (this corresponds to the length of the new slider). I haven’t found a way to avoid removing teeth, unfortunately. This could be a deal breaker because the gaps will be visible both when the zipper is fully zipped and when it’s open.
In this case, I had to remove 5 zipper teeth from the bottom with nose pliers. It is easier to grip each tooth from the part sticking out from the side of the tape and pull it straight out, perpendicular to the tape.

Step 7: Seal the exposed zipper tape edge to prevent fraying. (For synthetic material, run a small flame quickly along the edge to melt it in place. For cotton twill, stitching with thread should work, if needed—I haven’t tried this.)

Step 8: Replace the top stop. (You could do this after Step 4, as soon as both sliders are on, but I like this to be the final step after I’m sure no other adjustments are needed.)

These are just the steps I took in trial-and-error mode. If you see that something I did is a blatant error or could be done in a better way, please let me know.

During this nerve-wracking session, I happened to be wearing Violet Shot by Olfactive Studio, from the Sepia Collection discovery set I purchased. The perfumer is Dominique Ropion.

It opens with the powdery, clinging quality of violet I first experienced from Atelier Cologne Sous le toit de Paris—dry, green, and woody. Per the brand:

Elegant and woody, violet shows off all of its facets in Violet Shot. The fresh scent of cut grass meets the sparkling notes of mandarin and rose. Violet leaf reveals its true self, accompanied by leathery notes of saffron. Indonesian patchouli gives texture to the rich scent of vanilla bean and labdanum as they reveal their sensual facets.

My nose is a little confused by a sweetness behind a hard and inky facet. If I try, I can convince myself that the listed players are all here in this swirl of notes. The leather—an apt accompaniment to this zipper modification project—appears in purer form later, after it’s settled down between my skin and clothing. It may also have broken down into powder…

Are you one for violet perfumes?