This is turning out to be a brain dump of a post. Nevertheless, she persisted…..

Has anyone come across iron-off carbon paper for tracing on darts, dots, triangles and other pattern markings on the wrong side of cut out pieces, i.e. the markings essential to putting together a garment?

I’d love to work with a tracing wheel and carbon paper where the markings disappear with pressing, or exposed to air when I’m done sewing — much like the disappearing marking pens which can be ironed out. The advantage is that there is minimal handling of fabric; after the cutting process, you just insert the carbon under the fabric, keeping the paper pattern in place, and run a tracing wheel on the paper to mark the detail on the wrong side of fabric; for example, a dart.

What prompted this request for the notions industry:

I am in the middle of sewing a small capsule with lightweight knit fabric; the marking pens and chalks I want to use for marking the dots, darts, etc. are dragging and pulling on the fine knit — yes, even the dull pink chalk.

I ended up pinning and hand-basting the darts (I add bust darts on my lightweight knits but that’s another blog post). The tracing wheel and carbon would have worked well here, if only it wasn’t permanent. Therefore, I am requesting the sewing notions manufacturers to get your R&D department busy and please develop iron-off carbon paper.

I may be in the minority among my fashion sewing sisters, but I like using carbon and tracing wheel to mark details on the fabric pieces (wrong side, mind you) ready to be sewn — you know, the darts, dots, triangles, squares et al that are essential to sewing up the garment pieces correctly.

Before the haute couturiers clutch their pearls, I will say that there is something to be said for the old tracing wheel and carbon paper method. I like that it does not disappear by the time you get around to using those markings. On the flip side, they are permanent. I can see why it is upsetting for us fine-sewing practitioners.

Increasingly, though, it is irritating to me that an essential task in prepping the fabric pieces would take longer than necessary. I’m 76, getting more crotchety and time is not on my side. I want to quickly make a nice, well-fitting outfit and wear it. Wearing a well made piece, sewn by myself, is now the topmost goal in my sewing life, not necessarily extending the time I spend making it.

Dear readers, if there is such a thing as an erasable/washaway/iron-off carbon paper on the market, please point it out. And then, you can just ignore my words here. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. ❤️

Until next time…

Samina