Super Glue Tape Promises More Than It Delivers

The subject of height comes up with irritating frequency in my house.

I’ve always considered my 5-foot-5-inch stature to be average for an American woman. My husband, however, insists that I’m short. This is probably due to the fact that he is quite a few inches taller than average at nearly 6 feet 4 inches. To him, most people are short.

We had breakfast recently with a couple whose height difference is even more extreme than ours. She is 5 feet 2 inches tall, and he’s 6 feet 5 inches tall. Naturally, the topic of height came up while we were dining.

I asserted my claim that I was of average height. My short friend thought that 5 feet 7 inches was average for a woman, and the men agreed with her. Those were fighting words to me, so I pulled out my smart phone to do a quick search on the subject and set the record straight.

According to Wikipedia, the average height for a female older than 20 in the U.S. is 5 feet 4 inches. For a male, the average is 5 feet 9 1/2-inches.

It turns out I’m tall!

I suddenly felt like Gulliver among the Lilliputians. I even briefly contemplated the need to shop in specialty stores created specifically for tall women like me.

Then I remembered that nearly every pair of pants I have ever purchased has been too long. Apparently all the designers out there fashion their creations for women who are even more Amazonian than I.

This presents a problem as I do not enjoy hemming. It’s tedious and nearly impossible to do perfectly. I’d rather use duct tape to hem my pants than get out a needle and thread to tackle that painstaking process.

Duct tape works pretty well for this purpose, but it can make you feel just a little foolish should someone happen to see it when you cross your legs and the bottom of your pant leg flips up. Not that this has ever happened to me -- during a business meeting, at lunch with friends, in church or while serving on a panel at a women’s conference. I’m just saying.

When I saw a TV commercial for a product called UGlu, I knew I had to try it.

With the strength of super glue and the convenience of tape, UGlu promised to be my new best friend. You just peel and press, and you’ve got an instant, industrial-strength bond on any surface.

It sounded like the perfect solution to my hemming dilemma.

The package comes with 80 power squares, 20 power strips and 1 power patch. With all that power, I was confident I could make quick work of hemming some new pants I had purchased.

I started with the power strips and placed three inside the bottom hem of one leg of my pants. The strips are a little tricky to work with as they tried to instantly bond with my fingers while I applied them.

After negotiating the strips into place, I removed the paper backing from the top side of the adhesive, folded the fabric up to the desired length and pressed. You’ve got to be really, really careful to fold the fabric evenly and smoothly. Otherwise, you end up with a crooked hem and puckers in the fabric.

The UGlu did the job and my pants where hemmed.

Until I washed them.

After removing the pants from the washing machine, I noticed something stuck to the inside of the machine. Lo and behold, it was one of the power strips that had previously been affixed to the inside of my pants leg.

It seems the power of the strip is no match for my machine’s agitator.

I’ve tried using the strips and squares for various other clothing-related jobs with minimal success. They just don’t work very well on fabric.

I suppose there are a number of lessons that can be learned from this, the primary one being that you can’t believe everything you see on TV. I know this, of course, but this product seemed like such a quick and easy alternative to needle and thread.

Does anyone have the name of a good seamstress in Cranberry? I’ve got some pants that need hemming.