Please help me fix my zipper

It’s a little difficult to explain how this happened, but the situation I’ve got right now is I have a book bag which has been zipped closed, and a zipping mechanism which has separated from that zipper. I can’t figure out how to get it back on there, or if it’s even possible to do so.

To better understand what it is I need help with, imagine you had in one hand a closed zipper attached to nothing–just the zipper, no jacket or bag or anything for it to be a zipper for–and in the other hand the zipping mechanism–by which I mean the thing with the handle that you normally pull in order to zip or unzip a zipper. The zipping mechanism needs to be rejoined to the zipper somehow, if it is possible to do so.

When I try to just push the zipping mechanism back onto the zipper, it goes in a little bit until the zipper hits the little “divider” in the zipping mechanism. At this point, it seems no amount or type of force will get the zipping mechanism to lock in (or whatever it does) and start unzipping the zipper. And so I am still left with a closed zipper and a detatchable mechanism.

I’d really prefer not to cut this bookbag up if possible!

Is any help possible?

Thanks!

-FrL-

It’s a little difficult to explain how a zipper works, so I suggest you have a look at howstuffworks. They have a couple of nice pictures.

If you just want to open the bag once, it’s typically enough to pull outwards on either side of the zipper.

It’s in general possible to re-assemble a zipper, but once it’s failed once it’s bound to fail again.

Replacing a zipper can be childs-play, but depending on how the bag was assembled it can also be rather tricky. It’s up to you to decide if it’s worth the time and effort.

Instead of replacing the whole zipper, you can get a zipper repair kit and just replace the slider - the thing that came off. I bought one of these kits at a camping supply store, and it has fixed zippers on luggage, clothing, even a lawn mower grass bag! It comes with an excellent little booklet on how to repair various types of zippers.