Stitched Up

For a while I've been making do with substitutes for my camera bag, a LowePro Slingshot 300

Its a really nice bag, not least because it'll swing effortlessly round your shoulder and sit on its side in front of you're chest giving access to the camera pouch for lenses or whatever else is in there.

The problem I've had with mine is the zip of the main compartment, which broke in two places in different ways. At the end of the zip in the middle of the bag (between the front pockets) the zip came off on one side preventing it from refastening without a lot of faff to restart it. If it did get back on the teeth, a slight mistake meant it fell off again. 

First thing was to get the zip started again, which took about 20 minutes due to the way the zip is positioned under the material for weatherproofing. Anyway, it worked and the teeth lined up eventually.

Next, once its secure with a few wraps of thread and the pieces don't come apart it's time to sew it in a more substantial fashion.

Something like 4 feet of thread later, i'm happy the stitching wont come lose at least without me noticing and being able to fix it again before the zip falls off.

The next problem is at the bottom left corner (as seen in the first image) where the zip has ripped away from the fabric and not only doesn't allow the zipper to move freely due to the teeth stretching, but is also serves little to no purpose and things can still fall out.

After stripping the old thread out as far back as was loose, the ends were tied off to prevent them fraying more and a few stitches went in mid way to line up the material and the zip.

After that another 4 or 5 feet of thread went around the zip to hopefully stop it coming apart again.

In retrospect, i should have put the knots on the inside of the zip, not the outside. This i'll cite as reason number one i should never be a tailor. But at least with a full load of gear inside it's not falling apart anymore. Yet.