How to stitch up wetsuits

[bsnyder]

I have been trying to fine tune my cressi suit and get rid of some leakage problems. I have been quite careful with gluing the seams back together and even did some test pieces to confirm strength. The test pieces worked well and they would tear in the base neoprene somewhere near, but not at, the glue seam. I still would like to make sure the mods last and wanted to find out how to do a flatlock stitch by hand or something similar to stitch up the seams.

Anyone have experience/recommendations on how to do this?

Thanks,
Bryan

 

[Jon]

I don't know about the stiching itself, but I always used dental floss to sew with. Some of my friend got fancy and found nylon thread at the local sewing shop.
I have somehow managed some type of stich to hold it together. I have usually gone back over the seam with glue afterwards.

Jon

 

[immerlustig]

that´s what i do : firts i glue the cut, then let it dry properly and then i stitch it (not through the neoprene but only halfway through) and then i put glue over the stitches again.

if the cut is clean it´s easy to stitch and it will last. if the cut is serrated or if there´s a whole piece missing it´ll never be as good as the original. also if the rip appears at stretched areas (knees, elbows) it´ll always come apart sooner or later. one option is to cut out a nice clean hole and then fill it with a fitting neoprene patch. but that´s a bit of a tedious process and takes a while to get it right.

at least that´s my experiences.

hope that helped

roland

 

[Pekka]

I just use quite a bit of glue.. it has worked well so far.
I bought "OMER" gloves that obviously were not OMER since they had a OMER mark sewed on them through the neoprene and ofcourse they leaked through.. but with glue...they are just fine!
My brother has a OMER freediving suit that has nothing but neoprene..that suit has ripped couple of times but gue has rescued it..even BIG Holes have been succesfully patched with Glue..