Top 5 Types of Zippers

When a garment or a home decor project or something calls for a zipper, it can be a little bit intimidating if you're going into the store and seeing a bunch of different types of zippers to pick from. So I sort of have what I call there's the top five kinds of zippers. So you have invisible, I'm gonna call them regular zippers, two-way, separating and decorative. There are, of course, some sort of subcategories when you get into looking at more into zippers, but these are sort of the five ways that I'm going to look at zippers. So an invisible zipper is what is right here at the top. An invisible zipper, when you look at this, or look for this in the store, on the right side of the zipper you shouldn't actually see any zipper, you should just see zipper tape. On the wrong side of the zipper is where you're actually going to see the coils of the zipper. An invisible zipper is something you want to put into a garment when you want it to be invisible. Invisible zippers are generally on the sides or the back of skirts, they're in dresses, and they are ones where when you actually zip them up, you don't see them. So while the zipper tape on this one is obviously dark green or bright green, I would use a matching zipper tape to the fabric that I'm using. But you still, when you put the zipper in, shouldn't really be able to see it. So an invisible zipper is one of the top kinds of zippers. And again, this goes in a garment like a skirt or dress when you want it to be invisible. The next type is what I'm just going to call a regular zipper because I'm pretty sure for the first 10 to 15 years of when I was sewing, this is the only kinda zipper I ever used. And I probably thought it was the only one that existed. But this is a coil zipper, and this is one that you can put in anything from bags, you can even put this in garments if you wanted to. You can put this on the bottom of a pillow if you want to be making a pillow case that you can, you know, remove the stuffing or restuff the pillow. This is what a regular zipper looks like. So again, this is a coil zipper, and it's kind of the multipurpose zipper. You can use it in pretty much anything you want. One thing with this coil zipper is these coils are generally made of nylon. So they aren't always heat resistant. So if you're putting this into a project that you know you're going to press, and your iron gets too close to the zipper or even goes on top of the zipper, there is the risk of accidentally melting some of those zipper coils, and then you wouldn't be able to use your zipper. So just know don't press directly on top of this coil zipper. Another type of zipper is a separating zipper. So this is, again, still a coil zipper, but it separates. So here at the top, we have our zipper pull, but all the way down here at the bottom our zipper actually separates. So this is one you need to get if you're putting a zipper into a jacket or a coat, or something where you need it to separate apart because you need to put the garment on. So separating zippers come in coil zippers. Sometimes they come in molded plastic teeth zippers, or even metal. There are different types of the teeth that you can find on the zipper, But a separating zipper is sort of one of the top five zippers to know that it is available and of course is necessary, again, if you're making a jacket or something like that. The next type of zipper is a two-way zipper. So this is one where if I'm gonna loop it around here, generally two-way zippers are pretty long. They do make shorter two-way zippers, but they aren't necessarily as practical. The whole point of having a two-way zipper is, of course, so you can zip it from both ends. So you can see, both ends of this zipper have both the zipper pull and the stop. So it does it, while it looks like it's separating, this zipper doesn't actually separate apart all the way. At one end, they'll still be hooked together. So it's not a separating, it's a two-way. This is a good zipper if you are making a duffel bag, something that you wanna be able to get into from either side. That is when you would want a separating zipper. So this is sort of type number four of my zippers. And the last sort of top five of my favorite zippers is decorative zippers. So these are really, really fun. These are ones that you can use on everything from garments, you can put them on home decor projects, you can put them on bags and make them as part of the decoration of whatever it is you're making. And within that sort of category of decorative zippers, you have ones that are decorative tape zippers, like this one here, so the actual tape of the zipper is very, very fancy. Or you have ones that are decorative tooth zippers. So you can see that the teeth of this zipper are actually little rhinestones. When you actually open it up, they're all these teeny tiny little rhinestones that come together. So you have both decorative tooth and decorative tape zippers. Now, I did mention that there are sort of subcategories within zippers, and there are three main subcategories. And that is what the tooth is actually made up of. We have that coil zipper that we talked about earlier. This is generally a nylon coil. The second main type is molded plastic, so this is a really, really heavy duty, hard, thick plastic. And the third one is metal, so these are metal teeth zippers. A coil zipper is the only type of zipper you can actually sew across that coil, and it won't break your needle if you're using a heavy-duty needle. Molded plastic zippers are essentially almost as hard as these metal ones. You definitely do not wanna hit either the molded plastic or the metal with your needle. So make sure you are stitching around it or using your hand wheel to try and stitch through those teeth if you have to go across them. In general, when you are making your project, sort of think through how your project is going to be used and what it's going to look like in the end as to what type of tooth you pick for your zipper. Again, I mention this nylon coil is sort of the the general all-purpose, you can use it in everything kind of zipper. This one here, of course, this is our two-way, so this would be a zipper I would use in a bag. But a big molded plastic tooth zipper like this is great for, say a jacket that you're going to make that you know is going to be washed a lot, maybe worn a lot. This is really gonna stand up well to some heavy use. Same thing with your metal zipper. This is really gonna stand up to some heavy use as well. If you're putting as zipper into something that's a heavier weight fabric, then you're probably gonna wanna use your metal zipper. So think about jeans, jeans are a heavier fabric, and they always use that metal zipper 'cause it's a heavier zipper. So those are my top five types of zippers, and then of course the subcategories of sort of the materials they're made up of. But hopefully that gives you a little better idea of what kind of zipper to look for next time you're looking for a zipper for your project. And don't be afraid to stray away from what you consider maybe the regular zipper and try out some of the other fun zipper options, especially things like those decorative zippers.