Dress Zipper-Upper

It's always so sexy in the movies: a woman puts on her dress and, of course, she can't zip her own zipper. A guy nearby - her husband or whoever - happily obliges by zipping it for her. But when you live alone, or there's no one home to help you, you always have to end up opting for an outfit that doesn't feature the back zipper. Go ahead; put on that special dress with the difficult zipper. You can easily make a little gadget that will help you zip up any zipper that you can't reach. Even if you're a person who doesn't do crafts you'll see that the zipper-upper gadget is quick and really easy to make.

You'll only need three items to make the zipper-upper. You'll find these things at most any home improvement store. First, you'll need a long, small-diameter, wooden dowel rod. A home improvement store will cut it to a size you need without charge. The rod can vary in length but should be long enough to reach from the back of your neck to the curve at your lower back.

In addition to the dowel rod you'll need an eye hook and an "s" hook. The "s" hook, of course, is shaped like an "s". Look for a really small one with ends that would easily fit through the hole of a zipper pull. An eye hook looks like a screw at one end, and has a circle at the opposite end. Make sure the screw of the eye hook is small enough to be inserted into one end of the dowel.

Screw the eye hook into one end of the dowel. Just twist it until it's completely sunken. Latch one end of the "s" hook onto the eye hook. Hold it there as you take a pair of pliers and squeeze the end of the hook shut. Clamp it shut completely so that the "s" hook cannot be removed from the eye hook.

Use the unclamped end of the "s" hook to zip your dress. Just reach around back, hang the "s" hook on the zipper pull, then take the stick in hand and pull. For some dresses, it might be easier to hook the zipper-upper on the zipper pull before even putting on the dress.

There might not be some sexy guy standing there, waiting to zip your dress, but you can still go out and look for him. Just get your zipper gadget, get your best dress on, and go looking!