E:\PAGESEW\RUFFTEXT\ROUGH002.TXT updated 12 March 2018 MARKING Permanent marks don't always stick, and temporary marks don't always come off. Test your marker on a scrap to make sure it works as intended on the fabric at hand. Contents of this file: Temporary Marking Temporary Marks Made with Pens, Pencils, Cakes, and Crayons Carbon Papers, Tracing Wheels, Styluses, and Your Bare Hands Pouncing Temporary marks made with thread Notches Iron-on Transfers Pins Permanent Marking Labels Minimal Embroidery Color codes, Binary Codes Temporary Marking ================= Temporary Marks Made with Pens, Pencils, Cakes, and Crayons ----------------------------------------------------------- A #2 pencil leaves marks that won't wash out -- but they also won't fade, won't run, won't bleed, and won't attack your fiber. When you are certain that marks won't show in the finished product, #2 pencil is a good choice. Since graphite is shiny, #2 pencil may show clearly on a very dark fabric, if the surface is plain and smooth. If you need to remove a pencil mark made by accident, try rubbing it with an art-gum eraser. Brush thoroughly to remove the eraser crumbs, and don't press the spot before it has been washed. Like the #2 pencil, colored pencils can be used anywhere that the mark will be trimmed off, and some can be used when the mark will be buried inside. Some are wax-based, some make powdery marks that can be brushed off. Some bleed, some don't. Few wash out, even fewer make permanently- legible marks. Yellow and pink pencils are good for marking places to embroider thread-loop eyes on black denim, as the heavy wear soon removes the marks. When you need to embroider bunches of hook-eyes on an adjustable waistband, an even better plan is to draw your marks on removable labels, and embroider right through them -- the label is punctured in only two spots per loop, so it's easy to tear it and peel off your marks. White blackboard chalk is easily removed with a brush, and takes dirt with it, but it's imprecise. Chalk is good for marking the wrong side of fabric before cutting, for lightening the background so that other marks will show, and for stencilling marks through holes or notches in a pattern. A chalk pencil has the same virtues, and makes finer marks than stick chalk. You can buy a chalk pencil in an artist's supply store, but be careful not to buy a white oil-pastel pencil by mistake. Test a new chalk pencil before using it on good fabric, since artists may call any white pencil a "chalk pencil." Also watch out for chalkboard crayons that are not made of chalk. Note: chalk is calcium carbonate. For linens, cottons, and other plant fibers, this is all well and good -- calcium carbonate is the "buffer" they put into the special paper you wrap precious old lace in to protect it from acids. But silk and wool *like* acid -- you shouldn't use chalk on animal fiber unless you plan to wash it out within a few weeks. Tailor's chalk comes in thin-edged flat cakes that are less imprecise than blackboard chalk, but still not precise. The clay types glaze after a few strokes and have to be scraped before they will write again, and the wax types can be removed only by dry cleaning. On the other hand, wax chalks *do* come out with dry cleaning; water-removable marks and clay marks might not. Anything with "wax" in the name is likely to be dry-clean only, and not suitable for rough sewing -- except in places where you don't mind marks that don't come out. Clay "chalk" writes easily and doesn't glaze when marking on polyester blends and other abrasive fabrics. When a bar of soap is almost used up, it takes on the shape of tailor's chalk. Soap doesn't glaze like clay chalk, and it comes out with water. It may, however, remove dye. Use only plain soap -- the dyes in soaps may not wash out of fabrics as easily as they wash off your hands. A "water-erasable" pen makes marks that can be rubbed off with a damp washrag. (There seems to be a notion about that water-erasable marks are erased by "spritzing" with water. This leads to much anguish.) Make sure the marks are entirely removed before you press or iron them. The "air erasable" marker is more useful in rough sewing than in fine sewing, since practical garments are likely to wear out before the ink has time to change color again, and are washed early and often, so there isn't likely to be enough ink left to show if it does change color. Disappearing ink is useful only when you are quite, quite certain that you won't be interrupted before you use the mark. I use mine more often for jottings that I might mistake for notes than I do for sewing -- even if the writing persists until I find the paper again, the purple color tells me that the information was important for only a few minutes. I also use it to draw a line across the white card I use for measuring hems. This avoids a confusing accumulation of lines. (And the bright color reminds me which of the lines on the card I'm currently using.) Carbon Papers, Tracing Wheels, Styluses, and Your Bare Hands ------------------------------------------------------------ Dressmaker's carbon paper may have a waxy pigment that comes out with dry-cleaning fluid, or a dusty pigment that can be brushed off. The latter type is apt to rub off prematurely, so go over the marks with a washout marker or basting thread if you expect to handle the piece before using the marks. Typist's carbon paper leaves stains on fabric, but is invaluable when altering or copying patterns. For example, you should always put carbon paper underneath opaque paper when marking darts, notches, stitching lines etc., so that you can use the pattern either side up. When copying a pattern, use two sheets of carbon to mark the front and back of the new pattern at the same time. Whether used for fabric or paper, a sheet of carbon can be used dozens or hundreds of times, as each mark occupies very little of the surface, and dotted lines are preferred to solid lines. Dressmaker's carbon comes folded to keep the pigment on the paper and off hands, envelopes, etc. If you reverse this fold, the paper can be inserted between two layers of cloth to mark both at once. If the side you want to mark is folded outside (which is more usual), leave the paper folded with the pigment inside, and slip the ends under the pattern with the fabric between the leaves of the carbon paper. If the fabric is thick, mark it first with the carbon under the under layer, then slip a piece of thin plywood between the layers to provide a firm surface for marking the top. (The same piece of plywood can protect the table from your tracing wheel while you are marking the lower layer.) A dressmaker's tracing wheel is a small wheel mounted in a handle about as long as a pen and a good bit thicker; the handles of the better tracing wheels are bent like a dentist's mirror at the business end. The wheel is notched into points, so that it leaves a dotted line when rolled over carbon paper. I've heard of smooth-edge wheels for delicate fabrics, but I wouldn't use carbon paper at all on a fabric too fine to bear the blunt teeth of the ordinary wheel. Embroiderers use a miniature tracing wheel called a "roulette" to copy their designs. The tiny wheel and fine teeth make more-accurate marks than the common wheel, but a roulette can't mark through fabrics that are thicker than the depth of the teeth. A roulette is excellent for use with typist's carbon when copying or altering patterns. I also treasure a high-quality, fine-point ball-point pen that is absolutely, positootly *empty*, and won't start working again at some inopportune moment. (But my knitting needles are easier to find. The pen sinks to the bottom of the bag of drafting tools, and there is always a needle or two in the pencil mug.) Another special wheel is the "needle wheel", which leaves a row of pinholes as it rolls. A needle wheel alleviates the tedium of copying a finished garment by poking a needle through it to mark a paper underneath. Many fabrics can be marked by pinching or ironing creases into them. Some fabrics can be marked by laying them over a slightly-yielding surface and drawing with a not-too-sharp edge, which will leave a crease. Pouncing -------- A traditional way to mark embroidery designs is to punch needle-holes in a sheet of paper, and stencil the design by patting or rubbing the perforated paper with a pad charged with powder. This is called "pouncing". It was customary to go over the design at once with water color on a fine brush; the modern pouncer will use a water-erasable pen. Temporary marks made with thread -------------------------------- The old-fashioned tailor's tack is still a good way to mark a point on two layers at once. Take a stitch about a quarter inch long, centered over the point to be marked; take another in the same place, leaving a loop about half an inch high. Since the threads are insecurely held, you may prefer to make a few more stitches to provide spares, and the finicky may make a second tack at right angles to the first, so that X marks the spot. Cut the thread, leaving about half an inch of tail. Cut the thread after each tack even when you put two in the same spot to make an X. Separate the layers of fabric until the upper loop lies as snugly against the fabric as the lower stitches. Cut the threads between the layers of fabric. Use care and sharp scissors, as it is easy to pull the stitches out while attempting to cut them. On each layer, the spot will be marked by a stitch on one side and two tufts of thread on the other. Tissue patterns can be pulled off an uncut tailor tack, as the thread will pull through the soft paper easily, and tear it very little. Marking the spot where you intend to make the tack by stroking it with the point of your needle will weaken the paper and make it tear more neatly. When you draft your own pattern on re-usable paper, cut a diamond-shaped hole where the tack goes by snipping the corner off a fold with its creases along logical lines -- a dart-tip, for example, would be folded in half, and then at right angles to the first fold. Imaginary lines from corner to corner of the hole form an X that marks your spot. If you are marking only one layer, snip the upper loops, and then you won't need any holes in the pattern except those made by the needle. Or take only one stitch, so that there are no upper loops. Thread marking is a good way to mark a line, but can be done on only one layer at a time. Just take short stitches a long way apart. You can also darn in a short thread to point at a mark that you might otherwise have trouble finding. Short bits of running stitch can mark notches when you don't want to snip, and other marks rub off or don't show. Large cross stitches can mark dots that are insufficiently visible, or likely to rub off before you can use them. If you thread mark through a pattern, snip each of the stitches on the pattern side, so that you leave a row of tailor tacks after you pull off the pattern. Before you snip the threads, It's usually a good idea to put your finger on the short end of the thread and stretch the stitch nearest it into a loop by putting the eye of your needle into it and pulling. Then put your finger on this stitch and stretch the next one, and so forth to the end. If your thread snips are dull, pull out a little extra thread at each loop, then shear off the loops with the scissors held parallel to the fabric. This allows you to chew through the thread without pulling it out. You can mark a line on two layers at once by taking one running stitch at a time, and leaving a loop after each stitch. Then you can separate the layers and cut as for tailor's tacks. But if you mark through a pattern this way, removing the pattern will peel the marks off the upper layer. If you plan to thread-mark through a pattern a lot, cut a series of short slits in the line to be marked, and stitch from slit to slit. As in the single tailer tack, pull the pattern loose from the stitches before cutting them even when you are sure you didn't catch the paper. If you want to wash a fabric without removing removable marks, thread is about the only way you can do it. For example, if I want to wash a long piece in sections, and yet keep the "nap" on all pieces pointing the same way, I embroider small arrows in the selvages. The arrows seldom end up in the cut pieces, but are easily removed if they do. (See "cutting out" for a quick embroidered arrow.) Whether embroidered or drawn with chalk, arrows should always point up -- otherwise, you are apt to forget what they mean. Thread marks don't need to be secured, but when you thread-mark notches from the wrong side, a knot in the end of the thread helps you to remember which side is the wrong side. Notches ------- Patterns often call for matching "notches" on the edges of garment pieces. The word "notch" is left over from the old patterns that were marked with holes and notches instead of being printed. Nowadays, it's cheaper to print lines than to die-cut shapes, so you'll see unprinted patterns only in antique shops. The "dots" that you see on modern patterns are a vestige of the round holes once punched into tissue patterns. Another vestige is the custom of using double notches on the back of the garment -- usually only on sleeves and other pieces that span front to back, but double notches are sometimes found on center-back seams to help you to tell back from front. A notch on the edge of a pattern piece showed the seamstress where to make a *snip* -- the shortest cut that would show at all. If the snip was hard to see, she might pinch it and nip off its corners to make a minute notch. Now that my eyes are fading, I prefer to stencil chalk through the pattern notch, or to mark the spot with tracing paper and a wheel, or with a pencil, or to darn in a thread mark on each layer of the fabric. I find that I can mark a dot by putting a wash-out pen through the hole and twisting it, then putting my finger on the dot and bringing the pen up from below to mark the other side. Note: whether you are marking, relieving congestion on a curved seam allowance, or hand-pinking a raw edge, you cut a notch by pinching the fabric into a fold and snipping from the bottom of the notch toward the edge of the fabric. If you try to make a notch by two intersecting snips, you risk cutting too far, and always leave a tear-starting snip at the bottom of the notch. Notches have two purposes: one is to show you which two edges to sew together, as implied by the remark that double notches indicate the back. Another purpose is ease control. In the simplest case, the notches are merely registration marks. If, for example, you have cut a long curve with the right sides of the fabric together, and want to put the two pieces back into this exact same position after performing several other operations, you can snip here and there along the edge: matching the snips will put the pieces back exactly where they were. Another registration-mark use: suppose you want to cut a pattern piece along a curve, cut two pieces from different fabrics, and sew them together to get the original shape. You would draw the cutting line, draw some marks across it at right angles, and put notches at each mark when creating your pattern pieces. Matching the notches will allow you to sew the two pieces together without puckers. Sometimes one edge is longer than the other, and must be eased to fit. Notches help you to distribute the ease evenly and confine it to the places where it's wanted. For example, a sleeve-cap usually has three notches: two show you where the cap begins and ends, so that you can keep the underarm smooth and flat. The third notch is matched to the shoulder seam to divide the ease into two equal parts. (Or two unequal parts; sometimes you want more ease in the back.) This third notch is nearly always indicated by a dot: a vestige of the code used to mark die-cut patterns. Gathering may also be controlled by notches. The marks are usually added just before drawing up the gathers, by repeatedly folding in half and sticking a pin into the fold. When part of a seam is gathered and part is smooth, notches on the pattern will indicate the beginning and end of each set of gathers, but a stretch of gathers more than two or three inches long will also require seamstress-added marks in between. Another way to indicate a notch is to cut a little tab extending outward from the edge. This complicates both layout and cutting, but it is much beloved by home-ec teachers because their students can't get it wrong. If they are properly instructed. My teacher told us the horrible tale of the student who had been told only to cut her notches "out" -- so she she found little blue diamond shapes on her pattern and cut them OUT. Big out. No-seam- allowance-left out. Tabs do have their uses if the notches come in places where tabs aren't much trouble and the seam allowance is so narrow that snipping is not an option. But cut carefully; there is a tendency to snip into the seam allowance while cutting around a tab. Iron-on Transfers ----------------- Embroiderer's-supply shops will have pens and pencils to make your own iron-on transfers. This is a good way to manage small, complicated patterns such as doll clothes and toys: you can mark seam lines, cutting lines, notches, darts, etc. all in one swell foop. But iron-on marks are not guaranteed to come out -- indeed, some of them are intended to be permanent. Use them on the wrong side of heavy fabric, or where you don't mind permanent marks. I used to iron-on my bra patterns, because no-one would ever see the finished product. (Nowadays I use a much less complicated pattern that isn't tedious to mark with a tracing wheel.) Pins ---- Both straight pins and safety pins can be used as marks. Safety pins are particularly useful for marking garments while you are wearing them. Straight pins are particularly useful for sticking into a mark that's on one side of the fabric when it's wanted on the other side. You can weave a pin into a spot where a mark is wanted, then rub over it with chalk or a pencil. ----------------------------------------------------------- Permanent Marking ================= The oldest way to mark garments and linen is to embroider words and symbols. Early in the twentieth century, housewives saved labor by writing with india ink on a white tape, or a patch of white muslin, and sewing it to the item to be marked. Later, "laundry markers", india-ink ballpoints, and permanent markers became available. Marking pens can be used directly on the garment -- if you exercise caution. Those that soak in enough to be durable will show on the other side, and may bleed through several layers if you hesitate while writing. Aluminum foil or waxed paper under the fabric can help to keep the ink where it's wanted. You still have to write smoothly and without hesitation, to keep the line from getting too wide. Inspect "permanent" writing on washday, and touch it up when required. Ironing the mark will probably help, as will giving the stain plenty of time to set before you wash it the first time. Labels ------ If you want the same words on several garments, you can buy printed or woven name tapes and labels. Labels are available only by mail order or Web page; read the ads in the back of a sewing magazine. Read carefully, as some label-makers use "woven" to distinguish labels printed on ribbon from those printed on thin felt or tough paper. If you want a woven label, make sure that the ad says that the *name* is woven. If the name is woven in, the label will be so durable that you can rip it out of a worn-out garment and use it in a new one. The writing on a printed label often fades away with wear and washing. Many commercial labels melt when ironed at temperatures suitable for plant fibers, but won't melt if you use a press cloth. Some labels allow more than one line, so that you can sew your address and phone number into your children's clothes. Another plan is to buy three sets of name tapes, one with your name, one with your address, and one with your phone number, and mix them according to the situation. The mix-and-match plan is particularly good for people who move a lot, and for families with lots of names, but only one address. Or you can put name and address on a multi-line label, and e-mail and phone on a name tape, to be replaced when you change providers. A well-made label is a good way to sign your work. Minimal Embroidery ------------------ If you are willing for the middle stroke of "e" to come out its back, you can embroider words in fly stitch for only one or two stitches per letter (two or three for capitals), and you can work a cross-stitch alphabet with the short letters only three stitches high. Fly stitch can be thought of as a lazy daisy (detached chain) that's opened a bit, or a straight stitch that's bent a bit by being caught in a short stitch. With the proper proportion and placement, this stitch can be seen as a "c" or "v". Add a stroke to the c to make "a" and "d", and turn the "d" around for "b". Two "c"s make an "o", and so on. Crude sketches of letters embroidered this way are posted at http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/FLY.HTM . Cross stitch is two straight stitches that cross, usually worked from corner to corner of a square. Tiny cross stitches can be worked by using the threads of woven fabric as a guide. The only essential point in working cross stitch is that the upper stitch on all the crosses must slant the same way, as a mixture shows enough to look messy, but it doesn't show enough that the observer knows why the stitches seem to be untidy. ..+++Add chart of cross-stitch letters. .................................. Two vertical bars represent one cross stitch. If you print this chart at 12 pitch on pica line spacing, it should come out square: L---N || |||| |||| || || || || || || || |||||| |||| |||| |||| || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || |||| |||| |||| |||| || |||||| || || || || || || |||| || || || || |||||| |||| |||||| |||||| || |||| || || || || |||| |||| |||| |||| || |||||| |||| || |||| || || || || || || |||||| |||| || || |||| |||| || || || || || |||||| || || || || || || || || |||||||| |||| || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || |||||| || || || || || || || || || || |||| |||| || || || || || || || || || |||| || || || || || || || |||| || || || |||| || || || || || || || || || || || |||||| || || || || || || |||| || |||| |||| || || || || || || || || || || |||| || || || |||| |||| || || || || || || || || || || || || || |||| || || |||| || || |||| || || |||| |||| |||| || || || || || || || || || || |||| |||| || / || |||| || || || || || || || |||||| |||| |||| || || || || || || || |||| |||||||||| || || || || || |||||| || || || |||| || || || || || || || || || || || || || || |||| |||| || || |||| |||||| || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || |||| ||| || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || |||||||| || || |||| || || |||||||| |||| Color codes, Binary Codes ------------------------- Clothing can be marked by color -- perhaps a color assigned to each member of the family, and a bit of thread in that color in a standard location on each confusable garment. Even socks can be marked innocuously by a tiny tuft of embroidery floss on the toe. On resistors, colors represent digits: Black for zero, brown for one, red for two, orange for three, yellow for four, green for five, blue for six, violet for seven, gray for eight, and white for nine. Note that the darkest color is the smallest number, the lightest color is the largest number, and the others are in rainbow order. Binary codes can be concealed in your sewing by any method that can alternate there and not there -- running stitch, weaving patterns, tucks, eyelets, alternating colors, etc. The most-familiar binary codes are ASCII (used to transmit text from one computer to another), American Landline (once used by telegraphers), Radio Code (once used for international radio communications, and still used by hams), and Baudot, an early form of teletype code. American Landline and Radio Code are Morse codes. People in other contries will, of course, find other telegraph codes more familiar than American Landline. Unless clothing a telegrapher, International Radio Code should be your default Morse, because keys to it are fairly easy to find. Try your dictionary under "morse". Perhaps the most transparent binary code is Prisoner's Code -- one stitch for A, two stitches for B, three stitches for C, and so on through the alphabet. You can combine resistor code and prisoner code to write a child's name as a rainbow band, two threads to each letter. "Bill", for example, would be black red, black white, brown red, brown red. EOF