Material guide
Gluing Fabric
Woven and knitted textiles in clothing, upholstery and soft furnishings.
Also called cloth, cotton, polyester fabric, textile.
How Fabric behaves when you bond it
Adhesive soaks through and stiffens the cloth, so how much it penetrates matters as much as how well it sticks. Washability is usually a hard requirement and most general adhesives do not survive a machine wash.
Fabric is a flexible porous assembly of fibres, yarns, dyes and finishes rather than one chemistry. Adhesive can wick through, stain the face or create a hard patch, and performance after bending, washing and heat exposure depends on both fibre and finish.
Material properties
- Surface energy
- Medium
- Porosity
- Porous
- Rigidity
- Flexible
- Maximum service temperature
- 90C
- Normally needs abrading
- No
- Normally needs a primer
- No
Surface preparation
Identify fibre and finish, pre-wash only when appropriate, and make the surface dry, clean and free of lint, grease and sizing residue. Test for colour change and bleed-through. Apply a thin even coat that does not flood the weave and cure the sample before flexing or laundering it.
Which adhesives work on Fabric
Excellent
Flexible fabric adhesive
Flexible fabric adhesive is rated excellent for this material as an application-level assessment, not as a blanket manufacturer claim. Suitability still depends on the other substrate, joint design and service environment.
Good
Spray adhesive
Spray adhesive is rated good for this material as an application-level assessment, not as a blanket manufacturer claim. Suitability still depends on the other substrate, joint design and service environment.
Conditional
Hot melt, hot glue
Hot melt, hot glue is rated conditional for this material as an application-level assessment, not as a blanket manufacturer claim. Use only after a product-specific test on the actual grade and joint.
Bonding Fabric to something else
Last reviewed 8 October 2026.