So what is this silnylon stuff? “Silnylon” is silicon impregnated ripstop nylon. It is extremely waterproof, and extremely lightweight. Ultra light backpackers love it for this reason. It’s a little tricky to work with, but making your own gear our of silnylon is very rewarding.

Sewing:

• use an 80 or 90 needle
• use “taut sewing”: apply tension to the fabric with your hands, in front of and in back of the needle. The object is to tension the fabric, not pull it through.
• use a good quality polyester thread
• a walking foot (even feed) is a very good accessory to have. This is an accessory for a home machine, not a reference to a walking foot industrial machine.

Pinning: try the following

• glue stick
• binder clips
• pins in seam allowance

Cutting:

• use SHARP shears.
• try hot cutting with a soldering iron using a sheet of glass underneath. This will seal your cut edge so it won’t ravel, and if your two edges are going to be seamed anyway it will hold them together.
• rotary cutter with mat

Seam ideas:

Plain Hem: fold 3/4″ twice and edgestitch.

Mock flat fell seam: illustrated here. To make a “mock” felled seam, use a 1″and 1/2″ seam allowances, and fold the longer one around, then top stitch

sealing silnylon: use McNett Silnet.