Two Posts in One

Zip Tip

You may recall my do-it-yourself solution to zipping up dresses. I first mentioned my solution in February 2012 and revisited it in July 2012.

It is not a perfect solution. On two or three occasions, when pulling up a difficult zipper, the safety pin opened and stabbed me! Since then, I have looked for a better solution and I believe I found it.

I replaced the large safety pin on my zipper helper with a small snap hook (see photo) that was attached to a laser pointer that I use to entertain our cats. It is large enough to handle difficult zippers, but it is small enough to attach through the tiny holes proffered by the teardrop pull tabs used with some zippers. And the snap hook is spring-loaded so it will not open in mid-zip.

Heroines

Monika Kowalska is a Member of this blog and has a cool website that I happened upon: My Transgender Heroines, which features "1497 stories of famous and well-known and lesser-known transgender women and girls from around the world to show us how to live with dignity in accordance with their own psyche and that it is better to be hated for who you are, than loved for who she is not."

The website is in Polish, but Google translates it easily, so don't let the language barrier prevent you from visiting it.

 

Actors Alec Mapa, Robert Kaiser, Stephen Spinella, and Chris Logan
femulating in the film Connie and Carla, 2004.

 

Wearing Vince.

Taming Zipper Teardrop Pull Tabs

Dear Stana,

I certainly could use a technical article on methods of zipping up stubborn and hard-to-reach zipper tabs on my dresses and gowns. I think you posted an article containing some tips and makeshift "zipper helper" devices in the past. However, some of my dressier frocks and gowns have those pretty (but annoyingly useless) tiny tear-shape zipper tabs. I haven't figured out any device that works well on those.

If you have nothing to do today (LOL), maybe you could do your first fashion technical writing on this topic. (Of course, I'm just kidding about you having to work on a holiday -- you do SO MUCH wonderful work for all your readers, that you deserve a day off). Thank You.

Love,

Sheila



Hi Sheila,

My zipper helper appeared in the post titled "A Single Girl's Best Friend."

In that post, I described my homemade zipper helper, which is simply a piece of string and a big safety pin. I attach the safety pin to the zipper pull tab, loop the string through the closed safety pin, and pull the string up to close the zipper."

I recommend using thick string or twine. Thin string or thread may break while zipping up.

Also, pull the zipper up slowly to avoid opening the closed safety pin.

Regarding those tiny teardrop zipper pull tabs, the evening gown I wore back in March had a teardrop pull tab, but I was able to use my homemade zipper helper to zip up my gown.

Since a teardrop pull tab has no hole for attaching the safety pin, I attached the safety pin through one of the two "holes" provided by the swivel points of the pull tab (see the accompanying figure). It worked like a charm.

Love,

Stana


Need advice concerning femulation or other crossdressing-related matters, then e-mail me and I will happily give you my opinion on the matter. My e-mail address is stana-stana at sbcglobal.net.

A Single Girl's Best Friend

On Friday, the Post Office delivered my latest dress purchase from Ideeli. I tried it on and it was a perfect fit, but I had a hard time pulling up the zipper in the back of the dress.

The zipper’s pull tab was tiny and hard to grip and no one else was home to help me.

I had this problem in the past with another dress and rigged up a “zipper helper” to do the job. So it was time to get out my zipper helper again.

My zipper helper is simply a piece of string and a big safety pin.

I attach the safety pin to the zipper pull tab, loop the string through the closed safety pin, and pull the thread up to close the zipper.

I see now that they sell zipper helpers online and here are instructions to build your own.

So, keep on zippin'.