Shortly after Christmas I found myself at a nearby Barnes & Noble; little did I realize that I would stumble across the solution to my problem of how to install a zipper into a crochet piece.

After picking up a puzzle that caught my eye, I found an excellent assortment of colorful notebooks, reading glasses, and bags of varying sizes and designs made made from candy wrappers.

The candy wrapper bags were made using a folding technique that I had mastered when I was in the ninth grade as the result of an English assignment that required each student in class to give a speech on how to do something.

At the time, I had not yet learned to crochet (which, no doubt, would have been the topic of my speech had I known how), but I had recently learned how to make a chain from gum wrappers, and by the time it was my turn to give a speech, I had a 29-foot gum wrapper chain that I had worked on relentlessly for weeks.

I don’t know whatever became of that gum wrapper chain, but after looking over the candy wrapper purses longer than was necessary, I settled on this small coin purse:

What I found most interesting was the manner in which the zipper had been installed:

I had struggled with my own efforts to install a zipper in an unfinished bag I now call “flight of fancy,” and hoped that I could use the technique that had been used in this candy wrapper coin purse to reinstall the zipper on my own bag which has been languishing for years.

Once I purchased this zippered candy wrapper delight, I went to see my neighbor who teaches in the textiles department at a nearby university and is the person I go to with my textile questions. As it happened, she was able to look at the coin purse and tell me exactly what I needed to do in order to replicate the result (a zipper that glides open and shut and does not look hideous when examined closely).

As this photo of my second attempt to install a zipper, there is lots of room for improvement:

Armed with a visual example and additional knowledge of how to install the zipper, I searched out the pieces of the bag. Based on the measurements of a vintage airline travel bag, as of last May, I had gotten this far with my assembly efforts:

In the interim, I have misplaced the 4 x 10 array that will form the bottom of the bag, but I decided to move forward anyhow and use the pieces I had within easy reach. Over the weekend, I added two more rows to the 6 x 10 that will form one of the two 10 x 12 panels:

This project has turned out to be more of a challenge than I envisioned when I first began working on, but I suspect that when I am done, my craft will benefit from everything I have learned along the way.