Zippered Earrings

A few weeks ago I shared some zippy tutorials with you, one of which was a bracelet using the zipper from an old pair of denim jeans.  It just so happened that Mr. Goodlaff was tossing a well-loved pair of jeans, which presented the perfect opportunity to try out the tutorial. It took me a long time and cost me one seam ripper (damn thing snapped right in half--it never had a chance), but I eventually liberated a perfectly good zipper from the jeans.  Unfortunately, as I wrapped it around my wrist, I realized there was no way that zipper would become my bracelet.  My wrists are just too fat!

C'est la vie.  Mr. Goodlaff's zipper was not meant to be a bracelet, so I decided to turn it into a pair of earrings instead. Initially I was inspired by these:

Source

But, as I bent and twisted the zipper halves into different shapes, decided to go my own way.  Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

I'm actually pretty happy with how they turned out--they add a bit of a funky edge to an outfit without being too outrageously indie. The best thing?  I had all the supplies on hand--they didn't cost me anything (well, except for the seam ripper).

I trimmed the zipper material so the earrings would have a lower profile than my inspiration earrings.  The material frayed a bit, but one pass over an open flame sealed the material back up again. Because I cut off most of the excess material around the zipper, I ended up sewing the zipper together right near the teeth, which meant it was a little hard to sew through at times.  Still, on the whole, these earrings were incredibly easy to make.

Maybe next time I'll do a swirly pattern? Use a different colored zipper?  The possibilities are endless...