Recently, I ran into a problem. I wanted to mark a quilt that had already been sandwiched. Of course, I wanted to use a specific template…
When working on my longarm, I can use my laser like I do for my pantographs. Granted, that requires perfect alignment as I am working from the back of the machine.
In this case, I was working on my domestic machine, so the laser was not an option. I couldn’t put the sandwich over the template and trace it. No matter how much light I put under it, there was no way I was going to see the design to trace it.
I have a mini projector, but that seemed a little daunting, given the fabric was dark so projecting an image with dark lines didn’t work in my mind either.
I thought about using Golden Paper or tissue paper. With these, you trace the pattern onto the paper. Place the paper over the fabric and stitch through the design. This works well, but my design was large. I didn’t want to try to match up the papers for a cohesive design.
This also meant the design was too large to print onto the fabric.
I thought about using water soluble paper to transfer the design. But I didn’t want to soak an entire quilt…
Then, my mom’s sewing lessons came back to me. Why not use an old-fashioned method? I could use tracing paper made for sewing to transfer the design directly to the fabric. There are different colored papers that can be used depending on the color fabric you have. These do require washing to remove them.
You can make your own tracing paper by rubbing a pencil or chalk onto the back of the paper. But that is a lot of work.
I could have pricked the design and pounced it. But I really didn’t want chalk everywhere. Pounce pads and I don’t have a good history.
There is an easier way – Transdoodle! It works like tracing paper, but is chalk based. The chalk sticks well and it is reusable. The best part is that it can be brushed off later. It was the perfect solution.
Yes – my brain really did go through all of these gyrations to pick the best solution for my project. The good news is that now you know what options you have for your next project!
Happy Quilting!
