Glue guns! Oh my!

[cosplay_counsel]

The smell of hot glue is comforting to me. The revolting scent of molten glue solidifying between two pieces of fabric smells like progress to me. I know that if I use hot glue, a lot of stuff is gonna get done way faster, and might even look better than if I had sewed it

Comments

hot glue on fabric?

[sofisew]

Sewing is not a difficult skill to learn, and using hot glue instead of stitches means that you will not be able to wash, or possibly even iron your costume once it's finished. Are you saying using hotglue for say.. a Sakura Haruno costume, made completely out of fabric.. is a good idea? Even if you can keep the use of the hot glue hidden, I can't see that being very comfortable at all D:

Though YES to hotglue:
If it's a costume which is nearly completely armor and uses non-traditional pieces (plastic/felt/fursuiting) then yes, hotglue is your friend. You would not be able to wash nor iron that type of costume anyway. Though I must say E6000 is probably a much better alternative than hotglue. It's stronger and more flexible and available at nearly any craft store and hardware store.

Re: hot glue on fabric?

[cosplay_counsel]

I don't know what this E6000 stuff is, but I will check it out

[zweilous]

If it hurts, its cosplay.
This to infinity. x)

I love glue guns! ♥ I tend to also shove one in my bag if I'm going away from a con, for emergency repairs, and they're such life savers.

I've never seen (to my knowledge) a hot glued costume before! If people I've seen have been using them then, well, they've done a damn good job!

[cosplay_counsel]

That is the point of hot gluing an entire costume, is to make it seem like it is sewn. If you do it right, you can't tell the difference unless you look for it.

I tend to use mine for repairs like one of those liquid bandaids. I turn it inside out, and just layer it on. If it is a hem, its pretty self-explainatory how you fix it, just hold them hem and glue like crazy. :P

[kyonomiko]

I am not a fan of hot glue at all. Rather than talk about why I won't use it to hold a costume together, I'll share another adhesive I like much better. There's an acetone-based one out there that will glue almost anything to almost anything called Fabri-Tac. I use it a lot for tacking on trims, making shoes, wigs, and pretty much anything that I can't feed through a sewing machine. It behaves similarly to hot glue, it's better for fabrics, it's washable, it doesn't degrade with heat, and you can glue giant hunks of glass to velvet with it and have it stay put. Since it is acetone based, you can also use nail polish remover to soften it if you need to rip somthing apart that you've glued together, and it won't destroy the item. The stuff is very permenant, though, so if you accidentally get some on your clothes, and it gets mashed into the fiber, it'll be there for the rest of the garment's life.