Thursday 27 May 2010

Essentials for Pattern Tracing

I have been doing a lot of tracing recently, I am making a bag alongside the tunic- I cannot work on one thing at a time, sometimes I feel my head will burst it is so full of what I want to do, the rest of me can't keep up.


The fabrics for this are cut and interfaced, almost ready to make.



Back to tracing.  I have found these tools to help:
Dura-bac board, a large folding grided cardboard mat, I picked this up years ago at the car boot but I sometimes see them in charity shops, great to put on the floor or a even a bed if you haven't a large table to spread out on.  You can also pin and cut fabric out and use it to layout quilt ideas.


The layout pad is great for pattern paper. You can get these at any art suppliers- look where the art students go. The pieces are small at A3 size but more manageable than a roll or big sheet, I tape them together as I go along.  You can see through the paper- ideal for tracing but a lot less slippy than greaseproof and tracing paper, also easier to rub out mistakes.  Talking of which, a propelling pencil keeps sharp and draws a steady removable line.


And a grader's set square is great for adding seam allowances- metric, all my quilting rules are in inches, no good for Japanese patterns.   It moves easily on the paper and the diagonal is great for bias binding.


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