Do You Have Rubber Cement and Glue Sticks in Your Sewing Room?
There are so many tips and tricks in the sewing world. Today, I wanted to share a couple of vintage tricks that I found to be surprising. The first one is a method that sewers used for joining pattern paper together. In the past, some sewers used rubber cement to join their pattern paper if their paper wasn't wide enough. Personally, I prefer to use scotch tape when working with pattern paper. (However, I never use it on original vintage patterns as it can damage the delicate paper).
The benefit of using rubber cement is that it doesn't wrinkle or stiffen the paper, and any stickiness can be easily removed by rubbing it out. Additionally, rubber cement is not permanent, so it can be easily loosened later with a rubber cement thinner, making it easy to modify and make pattern changes.
Another trick that was popular in the past were glue sticks. Sewers used glue sticks as a temporary bond for hems, trims, and appliqués.
Have you ever used rubber cement or glue sticks on your sewing projects? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments. Happy sewing!
I’ve used glue sticks when I used to make purses. I forgot about that! This is a good reminder as I plan to make some tweed flap bags from scraps I have.