(12) Grade the seam and clip the corners close to the stitching. (11) Stitch along the diagonal lines with a 1/4″ seam allowance, pivot at the fold. (9) Fold over all 4 short ends by 1/4″ and glue them down. (8) Measure 1/2″ in on each side of the folded edge, Draw two diagonal lines to the raw edge corners. (7) Place your fabric right sides together and fold in half so the short ends are touching. (5) Close the small jump ring using pliers. (4) Attach a large jump ring to the smaller one. (3) Open a small jump ring using pliers and fit it onto the slider. (2) Pull away the small piece that is left. (1) Cut the original pull tab from your zipper using the pliers ( see this tutorial from You SEW Girl).

jump rings (chain findings) in two sizes – from the jewellery section of your local craft store ( mine were 1/4″ and 1/2″).

two scraps of fabric for the pull – I used 2″ x 3″.

I will be posting how to add a wrist strap to the Gathered Clutch later this week. Want to try it? Here is a quick tutorial on how to change a zipper pull.

Hooray, so much better! I have to say I’m a bit addicted to this now and might be adding zippers to everything, just so I can change the pull. I clipped the pull right off of the zipper and sewed myself a new one.

Now that I had changed one zipper pull I had to change another! The second teacher gift was an Open Wide Zippered Pouch with an iron-on vinyl covered lining. She uses the wire cutting blades on a pair of pliers to remove the pull – why didn’t I think of that?! A trip to Michaels for some circular findings and a stashed swivel clip later I was good to go. Thanks to Google ( gotta love it!) I found a tutorial on You SEW Girl that explains how to change the zipper pull on any zipper. At first I thought I could add a jump ring to the original zipper pull… but wouldn’t it be better if the pull wasn’t there at all?! I love how the strap on my own clutch attaches to the zipper – so I began thinking about how I could duplicate it. I was working on the Gathered Clutch ( Noodlehead tutorial here) that I was making for a teacher gift. The idea started when I was finishing a few things from last week’s list. Kids have a hard time pulling on them when I’ve used zippers on backpacks and pencil cases and the results don’t look as polished on clutches and bags. I’ve never been happy with how small the zipper pull tab is on the regular zippers that you can buy at your local fabric store. Happy Canada Day to all the Canadians out there! We are relaxing by the pool today and having friends over.

Jumbo 2 sided zipper pull