sew simple advanced – a product review

I spent a day watching Ruby and friends playing in a Cotswold stream this week. Loving the simple pleasure they took amusing themselves for hours, just with a fishing net, a  few buckets and lots of water. Oh and crocs which they did their best to lose in the stream. Last night we slept in a tent in the garden after toasting marshmallows of course.

Now I’m very sleep deprived but thinking how much I’m loving these summer holidays. I don’t want to dwell on quite how fast they’re flying past, I’d be quite happy with a few more months of picnics in playgrounds and trips to the seaside.

Yet I know I can’t ignore these forever:

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School dresses have been languishing somewhere in the forgotten ironing pile for a long time. And somewhere there are school cardigans that I retrieved from Lost Property at the end of term. I’m always sure that I label all of the school uniform and can’t quite work out how much of it ends up either in Lost Property or just disappearing forever into the cloakroom black hole.

My shoddiness obviously has something to do with the answer. I reviewed Sew Simple a while ago here and loved this very easy to use fabric glue – anything that saves me from my own inept sewing has to be a good thing. It’s been very useful for adding name labels to uniforms and when a pocket was hanging loose from one school dress I was very happy with the quick solution of fabric glue. But I think I often forget to add labels when it comes to grabbing woolly hats, sunhats, gloves and random but very necessary items just as we’re about to leave for school. And then there are the pre sew simple items where I’d added Ruby’s name in indelible ink which turned out to not live up to its name.

So when I was asked to review Sew Simple advanced (dries in minutes, good for badges, turn-ups and patches as well as sewing name labels on) I was very happy to give it a go.

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To be honest I was very happy with the original version, but this is excellent, very easy to use and fabric glued with it  seems secure after repeated cycles of the washing machine.

Hopefully its easiness to use will mean I’ll be a bit more thorough this time in adding name labels to everything that can possibly be going anywhere near school. .And save me time so I can still fit in more picnic, paddling and playgrounds!

With thanks to Bostik for my review samples.

sew simple – product review

 

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When I was asked if I’d like to review a fabric glue called ‘sew simple’ that “will help you make permanent repairs , additions and alterations to clothing, curtains and covers – without sewing,” there were two attractions:

1) My 5 year old had brought home her muddy forest school kit and P.E. kit for half term and I knew that I should make a better attempt at labelling them. Too many gloves and hats were ending up in the black hole of the school cloakroom. I had some sew-in name labels but had tried the lazier option of a marker pen, which had inevitably faded.

2) I love the ‘make do and mend’ philosophy, hate waste and throwing things out just because of a minor tear. But I’m pretty hopeless at sewing.

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So I decided to try this ‘Glu & Fix’ product from Bostik on name labels first of all. The tube of glue has an easy to use screw on spreader nozzle so even I couldn’t be too messy in applying it.  After spreading, you have to wait a minute, then press the two surfaces together and allow to dry before rough handling.

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I glued name labels onto a sweatshirt, jogging bottoms, waterproof dungarees, a t-shirt, tights and inside wellies in this way. It seemed dry within a few minutes. Having forgotten about the pile of clothes for a few hours, I then put everything except the wellies into the washing machine and washed them at a regular 40C wash. They seem well attached, were fine after ironing and my daughter gave her sports kit some testing out yesterday as her first day back at school was ‘Sporty day’. She came home in them, and again, they seem pretty secure.

The instructions point out on the sew simple packet that this glue product doesn’t work on 100% nylon or polyester fabrics and “It may damage some delicate fabrics – test on a small area first.” The school uniform items I used included some with a polyester mix and they seem fine. As for mending delicate fabrics, I fear my clumsiness may cause more damage than the glue! But for the more adept, sew simple could be worth trying on trickier mends.

According to the packaging, sew simple is “perfect for hems, turn-ups, labels, badges and patches.” I’ll definitely be trying it on lttle tears and rips on clothes from racing around in the playground or garden. From my experience so far, it seems a very quick and effortless way of mending – which if like me, you’re not exactly a seamstress, has to be a good thing.

Many thanks to Bostik for sending me Sew Simple to review.