TearMender
I've used Tear Mender for years. Tear Mender is a milky-white latex liquid that, when applied to fabric, makes--voila!--instant patches.
It smells a little cheesy, but dries within minutes, and has allowed me to extend the life of jeans, coveralls, jackets, and shirts nearly indefinitely. I have garments decades old that have little of the original fabric showing, with odd clumps and scraps of denim plastered all over them, and I wear them proudly.
The recently re-branded Tear Mender is cheap to buy, lasts a long time, and scores a win whenever I use it. Great stuff.
Better than iron patches? Yes. Holds much better. Never comes off and easy to add additional repairs. If you're careful, you can make "neat" patches, or you can make very strong patches that aren't so pretty.
You can wash Tear Mender -- over and over and over. I haven't had any problems with skin-sensitivity issues. Tear Mender does remain rubbery and "grabby," so I wouldn't use it to mend my boxers.
Tear Mender is also great for laying out sewing projects: it’s like tack-welding metal.
Available from Amazon
Favorite (15)
Moon
EIGHT DOLLARS??? EIGHT DOLLARS!!
Elitist crap!!
:D
/Sorry, just going with the flow
Ed Bryant
HA! Moon, are channeling your "inner troll"? I'm enough of an elitist that I think I will try this...kid's clothes first.
GdV
"Tear Mender does remain rubbery and "grabby," so I wouldn't use it to mend my boxers"
So, what pray tell, DO you use to repair those boxers ?
Justin Gilbert
Will this work on ballistic cloth and "genuine horse leather." ?
jen
Let me guess, Neil is single, isn't he.
archer
"I have garments decades old that have little of the original fabric showing, with odd clumps and scraps of denim plastered all over them, and I wear them proudly."
i think you posted this just to enable shouting this proclamation to the world.
strut on, brother, strut on!
Davey
So maybe I can fix the holes in my pockets without figuring out how to thread the damn sewing machine?
Davey
Forgot to share: when I first saw the headline I thought CT was making up for its recent lapses by discovering a tool to heal my broken heart. But I guess they'll just keep flowing.
genglefins
I wonder how different the formula is from the liquid latex used for applying prosthetic make up? Bottle of liquid latex are usually pretty cheap and easy to find around Halloween time.
Michiel
I like this and I'm going to keep an eye out for it or something similar here in the Netherlands.
I wouldn't use it on my regular clothes, but I'm a bike messenger and I wear out the crotch on my pants every couple of weeks. I am very impatient with needle and thread, so a bottle of fabric glue like this would be the savior of my sanity.
Laral
So how is this any different from Barge Cement or any other contact cement. Oh that's right, it costs about 5 times more! AND it is a genuine AS-SEEN-ON-TV product. A reassuring endorsement. ;-)>
Michiel
No, the reason it's featured here is because it's AS-USED-BY-A-COOL-TOOLS-READER who likes it enough to endorse it.
If a generic brand of contact cement is just as good and costs less, write a review and send it in. That's how it works.
Shannon
Does anyone know if this kind of patch would work on a wetsuit?
John
It may be over-priced and sold by "one of those" companies, but this stuff has been around forever, and even my mother (and not, as Jen might suggest, a bachelor) used it fairly frequently for basic work.
I'm sure the barge cement is the right stuff, but you can't expect people to know every nook and cranny of every marketplace.
Might I suggest that Mr. Sterling post an addendum to the main article that someone is suggesting barge cement as the same stuff at a cheaper price? It seems sufficiently relevant to not bury it in the comments.
Rod
Why not just make an entire suit out of this stuff...virtually indestructible, apparently!
Margrreet
Rod, don't be silly. You'd need a base for it to stick to. Duct tape, maybe.