Four essential tips for sewing with waterproof fabric

Our team has been sewing with our 3-ply waterproof softshell and we've picked up a few tips and tricks along the way that we wanted to share with you.

Let's get right into it shall we?

1. Cut out your pattern pieces with a rotary cutter

This isn't essential by any means and fabric shears will do a great job, but using a rotary cutter to cut out your pattern pieces will leave a neat, clean edge to your fabric. This particular fabric doesn't fray so a neat edge needs little finishing to make the inside of your garment look as good as the outside! 

2. Use clips not pins

This one IS essential. Don't use pins - they leave holes in your fabric rendering it non-waterproof. Prevent a leaky garment by using clips instead. 

3. Use a fine sewing machine needle

Select the finest needle you can get away with. Finer needles are smaller and leave smaller holes in the fabric when sewing. A finer needle helps retain the waterproof quality of your fabric. We used a universal needle, but microtex would be an excellent choice. For our universal needle we used a size 75.

4. Apply seam sealing tape

Seam sealing tape is an adhesive tape that is applied over the seam of your clothing to prevent water ingress through the needle holes that sewing creates. We used this tape and found it to work well and be easy to apply. 

This in depth tutorial from the Speccy Seamstress was really helpful:

Amy Nicole Studio also has a guide to seam sealing tape and also liquid sealer: