Save your clothes with these easy fixes for common zipper problems.

You go to pull up the zipper and oh dear. The slider part is attached to only one side; or you think you've zipped but then the thing unzips from the bottom, what? Or even worse, the whole zipper slider slides off entirely. What to do? I have always relied on the fidget-and-force-until-frustration-sets-in method and then tried fixing things with safety pins and generally end up shelving the garment until I am ready to frustrate myself again or take it to the tailors. How shortsighted I have been! I fancy myself as Lady MacGyver, I relish in fixing things, but somehow I have let zippers slide. Or not slide, as the case may be.

But then I met the zipper whisperer. Well actually I didn't really meet him and as far as I know I'm the only one who has called him the zipper whisperer, but I stumbled into the YouTube channel for zipper manufacturers UCAN Zippers and I'm a changed woman. Said zipper whisperer, Hyrum Mai, is one of the two brothers who run this LA-based zipper emporium and in the video series "Everyone Loves Zippers" he shows how to repair everything from a broken sweater zipper to a malfunctioning cosmetic bag zipper. The following are three of the most common problems (and the ones that this now-zipper-master can tackle).

1. A zipper that doesn't close correctly

You pull the zipper up, and it splits open from the bottom. Over and over. Embarrassing.

2. A zipper with a slider that has come off

When you zip up and the sliding mechanism and tab zip right on off! This may seem unfixable, but nope.

3. A zipper with the slider on one side

With enough jimmying you might be able to kind of imperfectly repair this, but the faux fix is generally temporary and can lead to a repetitive case of XYZ.