Sewing and working with Cubin Fiber

[Joe Federici]

I’ve started working with Cubin fiber recently and wanted to start a thread on any tips for working with it.

I’ve been experimenting with thread, stitch length, and stitch type and what I’m finding is if the stitches are two small there is a tendency to rip along the seam. I’ve also been lenghing one side of the seam enough to overlap the other or a felled seam without sewing it the second time to flatten it. This is something I've noticed people do even with sil nylon but needed more with C.F.

Another tip I got from Dave at Oware was to seam seal it with Aquaseal. This straightens the seam and helps prevent tearing on the seam.

JFF

[Steve Smith]

I haven't tried sewing cuben fibre, but I guess- ideally – you'd need to laminate it along the seam, to double or triple the thickness.

For this, you need to fold the edge over and glue it down – I don't know if that's possible – with seam sealer?

[Bill Thomas]

Joe,

What stitch length did you find to work the best.

I just made a poncho tarp (6'x 9') of 1/2 oz. Cubin from Quest Outfitters. The hood is 3/4 oz silnylon. Instead of sewing the seams, the seams were bonded with using a double sided tape from Quest. The seams were simple lap seams. Felled seams failed before the seams with only one layer of fabic on each side of the tape. On test pieces with a simple overlapped seam, the fabric tore before the tape let go. I was able to make the tape let go after heating with 2500 watt hair drier for about 3 min. So the jury is still out using the tape in temps >100 degrees for extended periods. For the tieouts, 2 layers of the Cubin film was sandwiched between the grosgrain tape.

Bill T.

[Joe Federici]

The stuff from Quest is much lighter then the stuff from oware so that makes a difference. I found a 4 or 5 worked well.

JFF

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