Ok. My hoodie string is crappy. Frayed, chewed, and stained.
So as it’s a great hoodie with a Ladybug on it. I decide need to remedy this.
I got a cute hoodie string. Tie-dye grey. Very coordinating.
I jerked out the old string. Wrapped it around my giant shoestring ball.
I sit down to run the new, cute string in my hoodie.
Oh noes!
The string has rubberized aglets. Not moving thru the placket.
I have a tool for this. Somewhere. Not wanting to get up, unlock the “art” room. Find the sewing notion box. Dig for the tool. Figure out how it works(I’m sure it’s easy).
But, no. Rather sit here and do it with what I have right here: an ink pen, a large paperclip, a barrette, a finger nail file.
I regularly replace all my drawstrings [I love stretchy comfy pants, I pretty much lived in plaid flannel jammie pants for the 7 years of chemo, radiation and surgery] with elastic. Next hint - before you yeet the old drawstring, duct tape the new string/elastic to one end of the old and pull them BOTH through, then yeet the old drawstring.
I did have to get up and get the tape, twice. The first tape wouldn’t work. Turns out it was double sided. looked like a normal thingy of tape. Aghast, I finally read the sticker. So got up again and dug in the junk drawer(s). Found some clear packing tape.
Hey, I just looked it up and there’s no real name for the device that fabricates aglets. This cannot endure. A name must be coined and used. I suggest:
Hmm, dunno. If we still call the device that makes labels a “labelmaker” and don’t need a fancier descriptor, seems to be no reason not to just go on calling this doohickey an “aglet maker”.
More properly I suppose it’s an “aglet setter”, as in a grommet setter or snap setter, since its key function is not to actually construct the metal thingy in question but rather to affix it to the textile object that needs it.
[ETA: Appears to be commercially known as “aglet crimping tool”.]
Meanwhile here’s yer Etymology Dictionary info on the word “aglet”:
also aiglet , “metal tag of a lace,” meant to make it easier to thread through the eyelet-holes, but later often ornamental, mid-15c., from Old French aiguillette , diminutive of aiguille “needle,” from Late Latin acucula , an extended form (via diminutive suffix, but not necessarily implying smallness) of Latin acus “a needle” (from PIE root *ak- “be sharp, rise (out) to a point, pierce”)
Figures. Fifteenth century saw a neologism boom in sartorial technical terms, what with Renaissance innovations in buttoning and lacing, curved-seam tailoring, etc.
Well, suppliers seem to sell the little metal bits to be used in an aglet crimper under the name “aglet”. So no, the crimper is not actually creating the aglet, just affixing it.
You know what, I never gave much thought to how aglets work until I saw this post. Sounds like something my sister could use, what with two teenage girls and their hoodie collections.
I’m not sure where I initially picked it up, but I’ve known for decades that an aglet was the thingy at each end of a shoelace.
‘Placket,’ OTOH, I’ve known since reading the OP. And I thought I understood from context what it meant - there’d be a kind of tunnel that the hoodie string would be threaded through, and that must be what it meant - but the Merriam-Webster definition (a slit in a garment (such as a skirt) often forming the closure) sounds nothing like that, at least not to me.
ETA: And I’m not the least bit crafty. And before Wordle came along, I didn’t get into crosswords or word games.
As someone who has worked with electronically-related cables and appreciates the wonder of a proper crimping tool, I agree that “aglet crimper” is a very fine and descriptive name. In the context of cables, anyway, it’s a wonder what can be achieved by crimping. This is pretty much how all coaxial cable connectors are fastened.
looked like a normal thingy of tape. Aghast, I finally read the sticker. So got up again and dug in the junk drawer(s). Found some clear packing tape.