Textiles: joining fabric
Design & Technology · Key Stage 1 · The School
Ways to join fabric
Fabric can be joined by SEWING with a needle and thread, by GLUING with fabric glue, by using safety pins, or with hook-and-loop tape that comes apart again. Some joins are permanent and some can be undone, and that is usually the first thing to decide.
Choosing the join
A join that must hold weight — a bag handle, a strap — needs sewing, because glue peels apart under load. A quick decoration can be glued. Something that has to open and close needs hook-and-loop or a button. Ask what the join has to survive and the choice follows.
Why sewing is stronger
Glue holds only at the surface, so it peels. Stitching passes THROUGH both layers many times, spreading the load across every stitch, so pulling one place does not undo the rest. That is why a sewn seam outlasts a glued one, and why clothes have always been sewn.
Join two scraps of cotton twice: one seam with fabric glue, one with running stitch. Handle both — the glued one is stiff, the stitched one bends with the cloth. Now wash them or soak them and pull. The glued seam usually cracks and peels; the stitched one holds. That is why clothes are sewn: the join has to bend and get wet thousands of times.