Below I’m going to show you how to make a simple fabric valve which can be used with a plastic straw. Due to higher inner pressure the fabric opening is sealed effectively when the straw is removed.
Deflation is easy, just insert the straw again and the air will be released.
Tools you need:
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Scissors
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Iron
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Something to press on the seam (ideally silicone roller)
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Baking paper or a scrap of silicone coated fabric
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Straight piece of wood/metal/anything that can handle heat of the iron
Items you need:
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TPU coated fabric for inflatables, 20D, 30D or 40D work really well for pillows
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A scrap of two sided TPU coated fabric (if you don’t want to buy a whole meter for the valve just ask us for scraps)
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Plastic straw
I prefer wood for the ruler as thermal conductivity of wood is much lower than metal, which means less heat from iron is lost when touching the ruler. Same goes for the surface you work on.
Step 1
Cut the scrap of two sided TPU fabric into two rectangular pieces. This will be your valve. Now join one long side together.
Step 2
insert the silnlylon scrap or baking paper strip. This will prevent double sided tpu fabric from sticking when inserting the valve into your pillow/mat.
Step 3
Once you installed the silnylon or baking paper, weld the other long side of the rectangular tpu fabric.
Step 4
Insert the valve and cover it with baking paper or masking tape to avoid touching it with your iron.
Step 5
Weld the valve in place, pull out the silnylon scrap out and you are done!
Tips
- Length of the valve depends also on the thickness of the straw, for me 11-12cm works well.
- It can be hard to find a plastic straw nowadays, you might have one somewhere laying around from your sawyer filter
