2014-05-14

Yet another marking tool

I already have several chalk pencils, the (Clover?) chalk wheels (the cylindrical ones, not the triangular one), triangular tailor's chalk, and one of the water-soluble blue pens. The other day, I also got this set of chalk markers (NAYY). I haven't used it enough to really do a solid comparison to everything else, but here are my general impressions of the different tools I have.
  • The chalk pencils (usually called something like "dressmaker's pencil" and under various brand names; they look like regular pencils, more or less) make reasonably visible marks, but work best on a firm fabric that won't move as you're trying to mark it. They can be sharpened to make the line narrow, although in certain colors the lead tends to break a lot. I've seen them in pink, yellow, blue, and white.
  • The chalk wheels make the narrowest marks, and (other than the pen) work the best (or maybe I should say least badly) on fabrics that try to move as you're marking them. The marks don't always show up that well, especially on light fabrics, as the chalk only comes in light colors. There are various types of these; I'm not sure what the name of mine is, since I've long since thrown out the packaging. But they're cylindrical and I have four of them: red (really pink), yellow, blue, and white, with the chalk a pale pastel version of each.
  • The tailor's chalk does a good job of making marks that don't wear off before you want them to, even on textured fabrics. It's fairly blunt/wide, though, and like most anything else non-rolling, can push the fabric along as you try to mark. The colors are a little more saturated than the chalk wheels', though still light-ish. To the best of my knowledge, the triangular chalk is fairly generic and should be fairly widely available (if not in every chain store).
  • The water-soluble pen works well, though I wouldn't want to use it on anything not washable, and I'd be afraid to heat-set marks in. I think these are pretty easy to find.
  • The Signet Color markers are kind of similar to the chalk pencils overall, but a bit softer and more "spreadable" (although they still are definitely chalky and won't necessarily mark highly textured fabrics all that well). They also come in more colors than any of the other tools I've used. You get a pen-like holder and a set of different "leads" that you can put into it, half of them white and half of them in assorted colors, some rather bright. I think they are made by a German company and I don't know how readily available they are worldwide. So I also bought the one set of refills that the store had; we'll see how long they last.
  • I also have the usual transfer paper, which comes in more intense colors than most of the items above (except the Signet Color). With the chalk-based transfer paper, the chalk can dust off onto the fabric a bit, and the tracing wheel isn't really appropriate for delicate fabrics. The wax-based transfer paper can make a real mess if you're not careful. I don't have any of it any more, but I used to keep it all inside plastic bags to keep the wax from getting everywhere. It's very effective in making visible marks, shall we say.
  • I have a Hera marker, which of course only works on fabric that will hold a crease, and of course the mark also goes away as soon as you iron it. The obvious advantage is you aren't adding any chalk or wax or ink to your fabric, so there's nothing to worry about removing later in that sense.
Stuff I don't have at the moment:
  • Evaporating tailor's chalk. This is cool but I don't know of any way to get it other than from New York.
  • Wax chalk. I'd be careful with this, especially any of the colors other than white. I hear it doesn't really go away; it just melts into the fabric.
  • Air-soluble markers (which are usually purple, no?) I've heard lots of stories of the marks evaporating before people finish their project; no doubt that would happen to me too.
And then there are always tailor's tacks. They don't give you an unbroken line, but they do work on textured, delicate, and stretch fabrics; they can be taken out when you want; and they show up. I don't think they take that much longer than most of the other methods (aside from notching and punch holes) but I can understand that they aren't necessarily that much fun. This is one place I use up my bizarre thread colors, BTW.

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