Tool Thursday: Tacky Glue


Pictured: Two bottles of “Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue”, panne velvet, and the start of some floral headbands

I have… a whole craft bin dedicated to my different glues. I first purchased Tacky Glue after watching a tutorial about how to use it to make things look metallic. With glitter being (mostly) banned from my house, I needed another way to make something look shiny, that wasn’t just painting it.

In the years since, metallic paint has come a long way, and I also discovered rub ‘n buff. So why am I rediscovering my tacky glue now? Because of those floral headbands I’ve been making.

I needed a way to attach the fabric to the headband base. While I sew the flowers on, sewing the fabric on would punch too many holes through and weaken the base more than I wanted. I know from past experience certain types of glue eat the foam (E6000), other types aren’t flexible, others wouldn’t work with fabric, some wouldn’t be able to sew through.

I decided to try my tacky glue and was reminded what I do and don’t like about it.

I do like how thick it is, because that means it doesn’t tend to get places you don’t intend to put it- but it also means that it takes FOREVER to come out of the container. Of course… that also might be that the bottle I had been using was years (if not a decade…) old. I guess we’ll see when I crack open the new one? Maybe I should have for today’s review…

Apparently there are now several different types of tacky glue, which is also news to me, and I might need to do a price differential for the bottle and the spray type. There’s a good blog post about glues Right Here (beware the amount of ads).

At any rate, it adheres the fabric and the foam together well, I can sew through it, it is flexible, it doesn’t eat the foam, and is pretty much everything I need for this project. If you’re looking to work with EVA and fabric, I can highly recommend “America’s Favorite Craft Glue.”

Also, if you want to light it on fire and make things look like metal. 😉

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