If you have tried to sew with silnylon, you have probably noticed it is very slippery and hard to work with when lining up seam allowances under the presser foot of your sewing machine. And you don't want to put pins in your waterproof fabric. What to do? Today I discovered an answer.

The glue stick! This great invention allows you to tack seams together without pins. Also it helps a lot when flat-felling seams.

That's a cool idea. How do you [or do you] clean it up afterwards? Soap and water? Do you sew through the glue, or is it offset somehow?
-Mark

YOu sew through the glue. I thought it would be messy on the needle, but it's not. I think you could wash away the glue later if you wanted, but why bother? It's inside the seam. It says on the glue stick that it washes out, so when I wash the stow bag that I tried it on, presumably it will dissolve and go away.

YOu can still use pins to hold the seams together, you will just need to seal the seams after you are done sewing, you will want to do this anway, because of the holes the sewing needle makes

Ray Jardine also likes the glue stick.

I prefer to use Duco 100% silicone automotive/marine sealant spread very thinly. Mate the surfaces and let it set about 1 hour. You will want to seal the seam anyway, but this will give a pretty tight seam all by itself. If you clean the seam thoroughly with alcohol, use a very thin application (scrape off *all the sealant* that will come off) and clamp it lightly, you can make stuff sacks and other items that don't get huge stress with the sealant alone. I have never had one fail. If you use this technique on packs or flies you will need to stitch it, and the seam will stay flat and neat.

Maybe if you were very careful with pins, you wouldn't poke holes in the body of the fabric. It's hard for me to keep them always outside the seam line, hence the glue. Also when flat-felling a seam, it's hard to pin without poking the fabric too much.