A Hands-on Review of Mighty MendIt: Does Mighty MendIt Work?

A Hands-on Review of Mighty MendIt: Does Mighty MendIt Work?
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Mighty MendIt: As Seen On TV

Mighty MendIt is one of many As Seen on TV products, seen on infomercials all the time. Does the product really work as well as the infomercials would have us believe? I tried Mighty MendIt on three projects to test it.

Mighty MendIt bottle- 6oz

Is Mighty MendIt kid safe? (2 out of 5)

This is never a product to let your children use unsupervised. It should be always used in a well ventilated area, and if you want to let

Mighty MendIt warning about dangers

your children help you with a craft project, do not let them handle the bonding agent. Never use it near any source of open flame or sparks. You should handle it sensibly yourself.

Mighty MendIt is extremely flammable in liquid form, and it warns against breathing fumes, prolonged skin contact, and getting it in your eyes (flush with water for 15 minutes). As well, if swallowed, seek medical attention immediately. There is an emergency hotline number on the bottle, along with a number for technical assistance.

They also mention the tip to cover the bottle end can be a choking hazard.

The bottle of Mighty GemIt which came with the package is labeled as non toxic.

Objects used to find out if Mighty MendIt works to bond rips and tears

Hello Kitty bag- ripped

rip in seat of leather chair

ripped pocket edge on dress

Mighty MendIt available at … (3 out of 5)

Mighty MendIt is available from several sources. You can order it directly from an operator with one of the deals offered in the infomercial, and pay shipping and handling. You can order it directly from the Mighty MendIt website, or online at Amazon. You can also often find it on the shelves of your drugstore, department store or grocery store. While I did want to try it, I did not want to pay shipping, and several users mentioned on the Internet that they were pressured into buying more than they had wanted, or had large amounts of shipping added on when they ordered it. I found a bottle at my local grocery store, and have since seen it in a drugstore and Walmart. Getting it locally seemed much more economical, so I did. The price for one package, exclusive of shipping, ranged from $6.98 to $9.99

Both the website and the infomercials offer deals where you can get additional bottles, but they indicate shipping costs of $8.99 or more, if you get additional offers. Some users complained that after they gave their credit card information, they ended up with more product, and more shipping costs, than they had expected.

What is in a Mighty MendIt package?

In the Mighty MendIt box is a bottle of Mighty MendIt, along with a single sheet folded pamphlet of directions (The idea brochure). There was also a small bottle of something called Mighty GemIt, and a small packet of bond on rhinestones - mine were pink. The infomercial and the box emphasize

Mighty MendIt came with some glue leaked out- and hardened

that it is a bonding agent, not a glue.

When I opened my bottle of Mighty MendIt, it was obvious there had been a leak, as the bottle top had a blob of dried MendIt sticking out from under it. The MendIt still inside the bottle was still liquid, and it did not bring the level inside down much. You are supposed to clip off a small amount from the top of the spout, which allows the bond to come out. I followed directions, and the stream of bond that comes out is fairly thick. I read online about a user who poked a hole in the top with a large needle and said it gave them a much finer stream, and allowed a lot more control, so I recommend you follow that advice.

Does Mighty MendIt work? What can it mend? (3 out of 5)

It is not clear from the infomercials, but there are some restrictions to successful use of Mighty MendIt. It says it can bond cloth, leather, upholstery, wood – and also be used for scrapbooking and other crafts. Oh yes – and parachutes. It does not work well on nylon, lightweight fabric, places where the bond is under pressure, and I am not clear if it works on rubber.

Can you use items you mended just like you did before? (3 out of 5)

Using, and cleaning, objects fixed with Mighty MendIt does necessitate some precautions. The bond cannot be dry cleaned. If you use it on clothing, which is one of the primary uses, according to the infomercials, you must wash the clothing in cold water, and dry it in an air drier cycle, not a heated drier. This is going to cause problems with the bond on clothing if you do not pay attention to this. Since it is said to be useful for emergency repairs, it is certainly possible that you might fix a hem on a dress that you normally dry-clean. I do not know if the bond just dissolves away, or if it leaves some sort of residue on the dry cleaned clothing.

It is also not useful when you are trying to bond two surfaces that are under pressure. If you have a rip in a sofa, and the edges are pulled open by the tension the material was originally under, the bond is not going to stand up to that pressure and hold that rip together.

On the next page, we will review Mighty MendIt in use, fixing a tear in a leather seat and mending a torn Hello Kitty tote bag.

Review of Mighty MendIt in use

I have three things I am going to try to repair; a tear in the seat of a leather armchair, which is not under pressure; a Hello Kitty bag belonging to one of my children, which is ripped along the seam at the top of the bag, and on the bag lining under that; two pockets partially ripped off a dress of medium weight fabric.

Mending the leather chair with Mighty MendIt (5 out of 5)

rip edges folded back

This chair is one of my favorites, and I originally put black duct tape on it when it ripped. This was not a good long term solution, as the edges of the tape start coming up after the chair was sat in several times, and it also leaves behind a white sticky residue on the chair. I tore off the tape and used fingernail polish remover on the sticky part, which worked fairly well. It is not sticky any more, and there is less residue, but not gone completely.

The seat is not under pressure - there are several wrinkles and mini pleats in the leather, so I was not afraid the tear

Mighty MendIt spread on one side of top of tear on leather chair

would be under constant pressure when the mend was made. Directions tell you to put Mighty MendIt on in short lengths, so I mended the sides of the tear in three sections. I spread out the leather of the tear and found that it had two clean edges, which could overlap nicely. The last part of the tear also overlapped, but it had a jagged edge, not a straight line. I put Mighty MendIt on one clean edge, on the bottom side of the piece I could overlap on the tear, and pushed down for a couple minutes. When I let up, the piece stayed in place. I did the same with the other clean edge. I let those edges sit for a while before I tried to mend the jagged stretch, because I was afraid that

rip all glued down

pressing on it at the same time might cause part of the mend to slip out of place. I went back after an hour, less time than the product said to give, and found that the sides I had bonded seemed to be held in place, and a slight tug did not make them slip. I pulled on the leather and had enough overlap to put MendIt on the jagged side still open, and push it into place without any pressure put on the already bonded sections

Mighty MendIt and the Hello Kitty bag (4 out of 5)

This repair needed to be done in two parts, as there was a tear in the lining underneath the tear in the bag. The lining was somewhat puffy, so

bag ripped and lining underneath ripped

there was enough fabric to fold over the torn edge and still pull the lining up to the edge where it had torn away.

Mighty MendIt spread on edge where lining should go

I put a line of MendIt onto the place where the lining was supposed to be attached, folded over the lining enough so the threads were not sticking out, and pushed the lining onto the trail of bond. I held it in place for a minute or so and it stayed when I took the pressure off. In fact, I had not held the lining to the bad in a straight line, and the Mighty MendIt had fastened it in place in an uneven line, although roughly where the lining was supposed to be. I tried repositioning the fabric, but the Mighty MendIt was securely enough in place that I could not move it without actually making a new tear.

I let it sit for another hour or so, and then bonded the ripped edge of the bag over the lining to the edge of the bag where it had ripped. This covered over my uneven lining completely. I let the bag sit flat for a couple more hours. The pink inside lining appeared to be a standard acetate lining fabric, and the other edge of the bag seemed to be a manmade leatherette material (from the hide of the dreadful Nauga).

The damage to this bag made it look dreadful, but it actually was not to a weight-bearing part of the bag. I am not sure how long a repair to a tote

torn edge of bag

bag would last if the mended portion took a lot of weight on a regular basis.

On the next page we look at bonding fabric with Mighty MendIt, and reach a conclusion whether Mighty MendIt works well.

Bonding fabric with Mighty MendIt (3 out of 5)

ripped pocket edge on dress

The last thing I wanted to try using the Mighty MendIt on was two pockets on a dress, which were torn at the seam where they were sewn onto the dress. One was separated for several inches, while the other pocket only had the top corner ripped.

One thing you are warned about, both by Mighty MendIt and by other users online, is that using the Mighty MendIt

Mighty MendIt spread on edge of short rip

on fabric can make the fabric stiff. I worried about this, and how much of the bond I should use. On the pocket that was ripped from the dress only about an inch, which was really the doubled over hem at the top of the pocket, I put on about as much MendIt as I had used on the other items I mended. I put it on the part ripped away from the dress, and held it in place for a minute. It held in place.

I then went over to the other pocket, which was ripped away from the dress for several inches. I put Mighty MendIt on it, but not as thick a stream as I had used on the other pocket, because I did not want it to get stiff when it dried.

I checked on both pockets after two hours. The pocket with the short rip seemed to be solidly reattached to the dress.

two hours later- short rip on pocket held tight to dress

However, when I put my hand inside the other pocket and spread my fingers, the side of the pocket opened up again. I could feel a slight residue of dried Mighty MendIt on the pocket. The fabric in the pocket that stayed attached was slightly flexible where it had been bonded. It was not as foldable as it had been before I used Mighty MendIt.

Conclusion - Does Mighty MendIt work? (4 out of 5)

So, does Mighty MendIt work or not? Mighty MendIt is a pretty good bonding agent, if you take into account the rules. However, the rules are stricter than you are led to believe, and

knife trying to fit under where tear was mended

they make using the product unsuccessful if you do not follow them. I have used another fabric bond before, and on material, it performed better than the Mighty MendIt. I think there is a relationship between how stiff the materials are that are being attached, and how well they attach using Mighty MendIt. The stiffer the material, the better it works, as does using it when both surfaces are non-porous.

bag after Mighty MendIt used for repairs

It might work pretty well for hemming up the bottom of jeans, but on dress material, it did not work as well as advertised. I think for the material to remain completely flexible, the stream of Mighty MendIt needs to be very thin, and on porous material, that does not give it a solid grip between the two surfaces. When the layer is thicker, you start feeling stiffness from the Mighty MendIt.

You also need to take precautions, as it is dangerous to breathe the fumes, have it on your skin for too long, swallow it, or expose it to flame in a liquid state.

I certainly would not trust myself to a parachute bonded with this material, and I would not use it on clothing that

two hours later- Mighty MendIt did not hold longer rip in place completely

I was fond of. However, I have been sitting in the leather chair I mended a week before I wrote this article and I think it did a very satisfactory job on it. I do not think I would order it online, unless it was in a special shipping deal from Amazon. Try it if it sounds useful, but look for it locally.

All images in article taken by author.