What glue do you use for fabric and yarn?

Hi everyone,

I’ve found a great glue that lets me attach tiny buttons, beads, or other small pieces to fabric or yarn.

However, as is always the case, I bought this glue while on vacation—abroad, that is. I’ve already reordered it once, but since it seems to only be shipped from the U.S. (I bought it in the Netherlands the first time), it takes forever to get here and, of course, costs a pretty penny.

So here’s my question: what kind of glue do you use, and what have you had good experiences with?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards

Sandra

Hi,
can you still wash it without it coming off again?
Does it make the wool “clump” together somehow and make it uncomfortable to wear? Or is this more for decorations and not for clothes?

I’d generally be careful when gluing fabrics, etc. Sometimes you can iron something on—like appliqués on jeans—but even then, I’d still sew them on as well, just to be safe.
I also don’t know anyone who glues on their buttons… except on decorative items that aren’t washed.
But maybe there really is that “magic glue” that survives every wash—and keeps doing so for years.
It’s a very interesting topic, and I’d love to learn more about it!
I’ll be following this!
And since I work in a yarn shop (we have a huge selection, including buttons, but no customer has ever mentioned “gluing on buttons” so far), I find this even more fascinating!
Thanks, Sandra!

Best regards
Angela

For decorations, I use a hot glue gun, and for everything else, I sew.

As I said, this is just for decorative items—I agree with you that things that go in the washing machine need to be sewn on, but some items (like half-beads, for example) can’t be sewn on.

Well, I took another look now
women’s magazines often recommend securing loose buttons that are still kind of half hanging by a thread with clear nail polish. Supposedly it’s enough to dab it once with the nail polish brush on the front and back.  By that they probably mean the back of the button and the front of the garment.
I think that works, if at all, only for maybe a few minutes and definitely not if the button is under any kind of tension, or if the button is more than just decoration and is supposed to function and keep something closed. I don’t think that’s really such a good idea, but then again it’s only a temporary fix, and this thread is actually about something completely different. even though I don’t think glue works much differently on things that aren’t decorative. but oh well. that was already written here in the thread anyway.
Oh right, and if the button is completely off, then the nail polish method won’t help on the go anymore either. well.
that’s what those little travel sewing-kit pouches are for, for the lady who has a big handbag and wants to quickly sew on a button :) that only sounds funny until you need it once; after that it’s not funny anymore, but very practical. :) The mini scissors that usually come with those sewing kits are silly; they tend to crush the thread rather than cut it, but oh well, you can’t have everything. At least they’re tiny and fit in a handbag.

But I also found another trick in the women’s magazine that maybe isn’t so silly after all. This one isn’t about decoration, though. They write there that you should sew buttons on with dental floss. I think dental floss can take quite a lot, and the waxed version, which I prefer for teeth, not for sewing, may be a bit more durable still.
But why use dental floss, even if it would work, when you can get button thread for cheap? I mean that heavy-duty thread, the kind you can get in any dollar store in a pack with lots of colors for next to nothing.
Sorry, Angela, as a specialist from the craft shop you probably won’t like hearing this, but I buy little things like that at the dollar store. It’s only two houses down from here, and to get to the needlework shop with expert advice I’d have to go halfway across town.

Anyway, the trick with the heavy-duty thread that you pull over a candle stub and then use to sew on the button actually works quite well. You just shouldn’t do it with delicate fabrics. And you should use the thread doubled to sew on the button, not single, but that should be obvious anyway, and go through the holes several times and then wrap it a few times around the thread between the button and the fabric.
Maybe I can’t sew properly and I can’t knit either, but sewing on a button, that I can do. :)
That trick wasn’t in the women’s magazine, though; I got it from Grandma. It’s not trendy enough to put in the stylish women’s magazine, far too practical and not sophisticated at all ;)