Supplies (latex, glue, fasteners etc.)

Sheet latex

UK

There are two main suppliers in the UK.  Of these Radical Rubber may be better suited to the hobbyist as it is possible to buy smaller amounts (though there are discounts for buying larger amounts).

Radical Rubber (www.radicalrubber.co.uk)
Four D Rubber (Supatex) (www.supatex.com)

A wide range of thicknesses and colours are available from both the suppliers above.  Both suppliers above will provide (for a notional cost) a swatch set of each colour and black in each thickness.

Netherlands

Latex Repair https://www.latexrepair.nl 

Latex Repair designs and produces latex sheets, from fun dots, to metallics, leopard prints, colour change latex and much more with world wide shipping.

USA / Canada

MJ Trends – I have no experience with this supplier.  Patterns (and much more) can also be sourced from their site.

Please let me know if there are other suppliers, especially internationally, that should be listed here.

Generally the most useful thickness is 0.4mm.  This seems to work well for anything close fitting – as it stretches easily, or loose fitting – as it drapes nicely.  For jeans or jackets then 0.5mm or thicker may be appropriate.   (XXX link to graph of thickness vs ease.)

Glue and thinner

Glue and thinners can be purchased from either of the above.  Due to the flammable solvents these cannot be posted.  If you can get to Islington, London then you can buy them from the trade counter at Radical Rubber.

The Supatex website includes this information: “Bostik 3851 Rubber Solution Adhesive with Bostik Cleaner 4 (Solvent cleaner/thinner containing aliphatic hydrocarbon previously known as Bostick6009.) as a primer. Cleaner 4 can also be used to removeBostik 3851 by dissolving it and removing it from the surface. These products should be available from all good hardware stores or see Bostik’s website at http://www.bostik.co.uk“.

The Radical Rubber glue and solvent are sold in 500ml tins branded Radical Rubber, I do not know whether this is their own formulation, or how it compares to the Bostik product.

Other adhesives

Copydex is used for preparing non-latex material that is to be incorporated, such as zips, or cotton tape to hold poppers.  Copydex 125ml Bottle Adhesive 4598 1652 (Amazon)

For some special applications where it is necessary to glue latex to metal then superglue can be used. Loctite Super Glue Easy Brush (Amazon)

Nitrile gloves You should wear gloves to protect your skin from the thinners.

Poppers

I’ve only used PRYM fasteners so far.

PRYM 390330 Press fasteners ‘Anorak’ Size 12mm silver-coloured, 10 pieces (Amazon)

The PRYM fasteners are also available many of the haberdasheries listed below.

Each set of poppers comes with a tiny punch and a pair of adapters that you use with the supplied folding plastic tool.  This involves the accurate use of a hammer.  I’ve only had moderate success with the hammer based approach.

If you are doing more than a few poppers then the special PRYM tool is worth having.  The adapters that come with each pack of fasteners fit into this tool and make every popper a success.  Prym also do a special punch tool that can punch various sizes of hole.

Prym 390 900 Vario Pliers with Punching Tool (Amazon)

 

Zips, fasteners, tape

Kleins (www.kleins.co.uk) Zips, fasteners and more hard to find items of hardware haberdashery.

Jaycotts (www.jaycotts.co.uk) General haberdashery. Good for Prym fasteners

Sew and So (www.sewandso.co.uk) General haberdashery.  Good for cotton tape.

Abakhan Fluffy trim for Mrs. Clause dress.

Ribbon moon General haberdashery.  Good for cord (as used for piping for stewardess hat/bag).

Polish, conditioning and dressing aid

Pjur Cult Dressing Aid – also great for storing garments: Pjur; Lady Lucie; Honour

Vivishine: Breathless; Lady Lucie

 

9 thoughts on “Supplies (latex, glue, fasteners etc.)”

  2. MJ Trends is relatively low quality, but the patterns and videos on their website are good. The latex itself is great for learning on since it’s comparatively inexpensive, but I’ve had problems with finished wearable garments. Colors often aren’t constant through dye lots and it tends to curl more than Radical, etc., and it’s harder to fix already-glued seams.

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  4. Hello! I bought the starter kit from RR and in these times of COVID it was posted and contained no thinners. Are there specific thinners to both use or avoid on latex? I have white and methylated spirits here…can they be used for cleaning?

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    2. For cleaner and general solvent i use ‘Swan’ lighter fluid. its highly flammable as you can imagine but it works a treat and is cheaply available at just about every newsagent. It evaporates almost immediately. Its also really useful for releasing seams that are incorrectly glued or need altering. simply use the dropper spout to drip the fluid directly onto the seams and (gingerly) peel apart the seam as it releases. remember to completely clean back the old adhesive or your new glue layer wont stick properly. I’m UK based. i don’t know if this fluid is available or as other brands in other countries. I do my general clean up afterwards with white spirit. its pretty mild on the latex and will clean off most pen marks and the odd finger smudges from glue etc.

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