patching ripstop nylon?

[Ben Crowell]

I have a half-inch tear in the bottom of my Gossamer Gear G4, which is made of ripstop nylon. My wife has mad sewing skillz, but has never worked with this kind of fabric before. Does anyone have advice on how to repair ripstop nylon? Should I just slap some duct tape on it?

[Javan Dempsey]

Nothing special to working with it really. If it's a linear tear I'd suggest using some nylon or polyester heavier duty thread, and setting a wide zig-zag with a very short stitch length, i.e. as many SPI as your machine will allow and still move, if it's not stacking lots of stitches on top of itself, make a few passes.

Then if you want to be really sure about it, slather some SeamGrip all over the stitch work.

[Andy F]

I've made a nylon tarp and hammock and repaired my pack once. I sealed the fabric edges with heat from a flame (don't let it catch on fire–easy to do! lol), and then sewed a patch of similar material which extended about an inch past the rip in all directions. Put a rolled hem on the edges of the patch, put in place with glue stick, sew close to edges of patch, then put a line of stitches about 1/4 inch on both sides of the rip. I'd do this patch on the outside so that the rip edges are hidden and don't grab onto things, causing a new rip eventually.

Edit: As Javan mentioned, use quality polyester thread, such as Gutterman. The edges of my rip were badly frayed, calling for fairly intensive patching work to actually replace lost material.

[kevperro .]

I repaired a collapsible canteen that was punctured in southern California and used that canteen for another six years before it sprung a leak again.

That is some good stuff. Unless you have a huge tear it will hold well and is flexible enough on small dabs to repair about anything.

[Ben Crowell]

Thanks, all — that's very helpful!

-Ben

[Beendarenback]

for that type of tear is the tent repair tape at REI- no sewing necessary

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