HOW TO GLUE LATEX TO LATEX AND ZIPPER TO LATEX

SAFETY FIRST: When working with thinner or glue, always use solvent resistant gloves and wear protective glasses or shield. Work only in areas with sufficient ventilation or wear respirator. If the glue or thinner comes into contact with skin, wash the area with plenty of water and soap.

	What you will need: - latex sheeting - thick latex sheeting to make the stripes for reinforcing the edges - vulcanizing glue and small brush - zipper glue, if you also want to attach the zipper to latex - some thinner for cleaning, alcohol, toilet paper, needle and thread, scissors, rotary cutter (can be replaced by scissors), zipper with as many sliders as you need, cellulose glue
	First you need to cut the pieces of latex which you want to glue together. Best cuts can be achieved with rotary cutter, but scissors also can be used.
	Because latex curles up, when the vulcanizing glue is applied onto it, you need to temporarily reinforce the edges of latex. For this use stripes of thick latex (0.8mm or 1.2mm / 0.0316in or 0.0474in thickness) wide 1-1.5cm / 0.4-0.6in.
	In our case, we will be fine with two stripes. How many you will need will depend on, how many edges you will need to reinforce. The stripes can be re-used.
	Clean the stripes with solvent. Dont forget to use gloves and make sure, that you have sufficient ventilation. When latex gets into contact with any solvent, it will curl up. This is common phenomenon, there is nothing to worry about - the latex will return in its original shape after few minutes.
	After the stripes dry, apply vulcanizing glue on the clean side. They will curl up again, but as before the curles will disappear after about 15 minutes.
	Stripes which you have prepaired in previous step will be temporarily sticked on the outer side of the seam, so you need to clean this area with alcohol with toilet paper, so the stripes can stick to the latex. Reason, why toilet paper is better for cleaning then cloth is, that it does not loose hair.
	After about 15-20 minutes the stripes are ready to be sticked on the edge of latex.
	Stick hen righ on the edge of latex. In this phase, its important to not to press the stripe too hard, it would result into indents in resulting seam. Just gently put the stripe in place.
	Then press the stripe to the latex with palm.
	Only tehn press the stripe with thumb. This way the indents in seam wont prevail.
	Stripe is now sticked on the latex. Do both pieces like this.
	When both pieces have the edge reinforced, we can start cleaning the edge, where the seam will be with solvent. Again, we use toilet paper rather then cloth. The latex has to be cleaned with solvent very throuroughly. Seam will be about 0.5cm/0.2in wide, so the area, which you need to cleas should be little wider. Thanks to the reinforcing stripe on the back of the latex, it does not curl up during the cleaning.
	After ir dries completely (about 20 minutes) we can apply glue to both pieces.
	After the glue dries (10-15minutes), we can assemble the pieces together - again, dont press it, just gently put it in place.
	Then press the seam with palm.
	Then press it with thumb really hard.
	Now you can remove the stripes. They should come off fairly easily. By this, the seam is done. Let it cure at least 24 hours before stressing it. During this period the glue will vulcanize and develop stong bond to latex.
	If you want your new latex outfit to have zipper attached, you can now proceed with it. Firstly round the edges of the zipper up.
	It definitely looks better then with edges .
	To prevent the slider from running into the latex, you need to put some sort of stop at the end of the zipper. Its very easy just to saw few rounds of thread about 2cm/0.8in from the end.
	This is how it should look like. Thread should be the same color as the zipper.
	Because the cloth of the zipper is very porous, it wouldnt stick to the latex, which isnt. So before gluing the zipper to latex you have to first impregnate the cloth with the "Zipper glue". This way you will fill the poruses with material, which can be glued to latex. The zipper glue you use should have the same color as the zipper itself (in our case black). You dont need to worry about the fact , that the glue looks grey at the first moment - it will turn black after it dries.
	To help the glue to penetrate all microcavities, press the cloth gently with fingers.
	Also the stop at the end of the zip should be impregnated with the zipper glue. It will dry within about 1 hour, depending on temperature.
	This is, how the zipper looks like, after we applied the zipper glue to it. Now you can notice, that it obtained rubber-like apprerance and already turned into black color.
	Now you can apply the vulcanizing glue to zip.
	Latex, which you want to attach to the zipper should be treated same way as if you were gluing it to other piece of latex - it should be reinforced with thick stripe at the edge on one side and then cleaned with solvent on the other side.
	Now apply the vulcanizing glue also on the latex sheeting.
	After it dries (10-15 minutes) you can start assembling zipper and latex together.
	Because the zipper does not stretch, you can press the latex with thumb right away.
	Remove the stripe. If any end of the zipper remains open (like at the neck), put small drop of cellulose glue at the last 3-4 teeth on both sides of the zipper to prevent slider from falling off the zipper. And its done! Enjoy ... :)