Glue - Because You Should Test On The Material You Are Using Before You Ruin It

To be honest, I dated in the horn section

I use a lot of glues for different things and I think a lot of them are made of the same thing,  just rebranded to sell to different audiences.

While I can state the properties that I think these glues have, and the uses I put them to, I cannot list the specific ingredients in these products. 

Ingredients in glues and paints and a whole lotta stuff you don't put in your mouth are listed as trade secrets and don't have to be identified on the product's label.

I can go on and on about safety and contents*, but my immediate concern is this damn raincoat, and sealing seams/gluing seams down.

Clamping down seams with the items at hand. Tums love Too Much Coffee Woman

Nylon fabric doesn't like the same glues that other, more porous fabrics have liked.

Without pressure, Tear Mender dried nice and flat and Stop Fraying made the seam curl on the 

rubbery Yaya Han 4-Way Jumbo Stretch Matte Fabric. Different results on coated nylon later 

Anyway, I have seams to seal and seams to stick down.

Here are your contestants!
Fabric Fuse by ThermoWeb, Loctite Vinyl, Foamies Glue by Darice, Aleene's Fabric Fusion, Quick Dry Fabric Fusion, Stop Fraying, Flexible Stretchable, Beacon's Fabri-Tac, Tear Mender. Not shown: Tiger Bond.

We will divide them into two groups:
Stinky and NonStinky
Stinky:
Loctite Vinyl, FabricTac, QuickDry Fabric Fusion

Nonstinky
 (that is, no obvious flammable or brain shrinking solvents)

 Foamies, 
Aleene's Fabric Fusion, Flexible Stretchable and Stop Fraying
 Fabric Fuse
Tear Mender
Tiger Bond

I do use permanent tapes (Peel n Stick by ThermoWeb  and
Glue DotsTM) but I need to be able to topstitch and seal, and tape won't do that job this time. Both will hold slick fabrics well enough but really cannot be washed with confidence. PeelnStick has migrated from time to time, so I use it for bags. Glue Dots will hold stuff with a tooth to it, they will hold fabric to paper if you use enough pressure to grind it in. 

Foamies works for foam. It takes forever to dry, and you need to make sure it's mixed well. Shake or cry: it will run otherwise and not set up. I have my doubts about the strong and permanent claim, but it does not melt craft foam and when that's what you need, that's what you use.  Pals use it on felt. It did not work for me.

Fabric Fuse is made by the ThermoWeb family, and I can find no contents or safety sheet listings. Yet. Same deal: shake it or cry. It's easily spread, you do want to put pressure on it to get good contact.

Fabric Fusion is a Water-Based Polyurethane Adhesive, and a member of the Aleene glue family. Dries clear, won't run. The safety sheet is exciting reading. 
The Flexible Version is, I think, exactly the same product. It works just like it.
The Quick Dry Fabric Fusion version is NOT the same product. It is very stinky, flammable and stringy. "Extinguish all flames and pilot lights, and turn off stoves, heaters, electric motors, and other sources of ignition during use and until all vapors are gone." 
Oh yeah. That stinky.

Fun note: Blick Art Supplies links to their MSDS (material safety data sheet) on their product pages. Dharma Trading has one big page.
Mail order companies will usually have data sheets, as some things can't be shipped and state laws on contents vary.

Tear Mender is sold at outdoor stores with the intent that you can use it to mend outdoor gear. Based on natural latex, as long as you keep treat it like rubber cement (coat both sides lightly and join), it works pretty well.It takes a few days to dry entirely (it sets up but still is rubbery-tacky on the surface. Like Tiger Bond, it will separate in the tube so always shake it.  And like rubber cement: once dry, cleaning it up by rubbing it off often pulls it out from where it's holding stuff together. It likes to stick to itself better than anything else.

Tiger Bond is the favorite of many pals, go read the reviews online. I can't get this sucker to mix for me in the tube, and it separates and runs and makes a mess and doesn't work. But Emily SWEARS this is the bomb, and it is not stinky, so I'm keeping it in here. Best practice is shake the tube like crazy before you open it, test the mix on a scrap of paper, then lightly coat one side, then the other,  and then stick together. And wait.
People use this for rhinestones. That must be some serious glue action.

Fabri Tac is recommended for glueing rhinestones. It melted the backs of the plastic 'gems' on a prop a year back. Didn't just remove the shiny paint, it liquified them and took over a month to solidify. And stank up the joint in the meantime; it had to go live on the back porch. The faking of that prop was sad and pathetic. Sorry Kayla. I ruined your jar.

Loctite is a clear Isocyanate terminated polyurethane in Methyl ethyl ketone. Which roughly means: It's not good for you. Polyurethane is a great marine grade coating, in this case in a solvent that destroys brain cells fast. Get immediate medical attention, rinse with water...no. It works, it strings and spreads, but you don't need that level of adhesion to seal seams in a raincoat. Because of the solvent, it does dry fast, but I would really not ever use this to mend a tent you slept in any time soon.
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This is the test: the orange is two strips of coated nylon rainwear. The white is a poly cotton lining. The card is spare heavyweight scrap drawing board. I wrote in pen over the samples after they were dry enough.

All of these did the job I asked: they held the coated nylon pieces together 

Loctite: stinky, stringy, leveled well. Stayed stinky after dry.

QuickDry Fabric Fusion was stinky and made annoying web glue strings like airplane cement. It made a proper mess of itself and runs faster than Fabric Fusion.

Stop Fray had a nice sheen and smooth finish, Spread a little better than I would have liked right out of the bottle. Stuck on paper, fabric and nylon. Works well with a brush.

Fabric Fusion glued better to the nylon than the paper, made a nice bead on the seam when I used the tiny applicator tip I had on hand. 

Tear Mender, Foamies and FabriTac did not hold nylon to nylon when pulled on (and Tear Mender and Foamies still aren't dry after three days....guessing they need more air than they are getting in a coated nylon sandwich)


I have a lot of Stop Fray, in various bottles and sizes, and it's always been my "I guess it will work" craft glue. It won't form a bead (it's thin and self leveling) so it needs a brush and quick brushwork. It does fill holes nicely, dries clear and flexible in a thin sheet. The spreading part works for seam sealing better than glueing. It cleans up well.

Stop Fray wins for the seam sealing. Fusion for gluing the seams.

Now back to that blue fabric test: it proves why you should always test on the material you're using: 
Tear Mender worked better on that knit backed 4way rubbery stretch than Stop Fray. The SF curled up the seam and got crunchy and stiff. It may have had more to do with how wet the SF went on and it might have soaked in to that stretchy knit backing, vs the Tear Mender just riding on the surface. 

And how would I suggest application?

Seattle Art is long long gone. I keep my tools clean, thank you.

One thing I dislike about Aleene's glue is the tip on the spout of their bottles. You can't trim it down small enough to get a good bead of glue coming out unless you open a teeny hole with a hot tool. I have had some luck by transferring glue into a big plastic dental irrigation syringe, or a small bottle with a 'gutta' tip (gutta being a resist you apply to fabric you are dyeing).  The syringe has the benefit of being easier to clean (just suck up soapy water and squirt it out a couple times)

That baby will get you the tiny flow you need. Unpaid link as ever. They also sell the bottles.

It's easier work with the right tools

Action shot

Sometimes its easier to squeeze a bottle than a syringe. 

As long as you clean it out with a pin or a toothpick and soapy water right away when you're done, you're good. Or toss the parts in a jar with soapy water and give them a shake. That should hold them. Aleenes will not set under water.

Even with the seams I still have to do, this coat will still get a workout, even this late in the season

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*Safety Soapbox

*Bless California and their stricter safety regs for making that information less opaque to you and I, at least for known carcinogens

Even Fabric Fusion can burn:Safety Data Sheet

I worked in several workshops over the years, and am really really vocal about shop safety and proper use and disposal. When you don't know what is in something you use every day, you grow understandably paranoid.

(The mystery 55 gallon drums didn't help. The OSHA guys suited up into their HAZMAT suits before they walked into my work area at that shop space. I wore a lab coat over a vintage party dress, like the rest of my coworkers.)

I have probably inhaled so much toluene from 'just a quick shot of spray paint' that my IQ  is surely lower and I am clearly stupider.

I have inhaled enough dust (chalk, clay, wood, plastic) that I have the rough equivalent of stress related asthma. 

I have a metal contact allergy now. The earrings and watch are gone, and my wedding ring is lined with rhodium (which somehow I don't react with). I was wearing an 'O' ring

So when you're filing down that little thing with a nail file, do yourself a solid and clean up the dust with a vacumn, and wear a dust mask or a bandana. Don't put your fingers on a substance and touch your skin without cleaning them off first. Don't lick the brush and then stick in the paint. If it smells bad, don't breathe it.
You can thank me in twenty years.