Quick Tips: Best All-Purpose Marking Method
Nicki LaFoilleLearn how to use a chalk wheel, the best all-purpose marking method when drawing lines onto dark fabric, especially knits.
Nicki LaFoille discusses the drawbacks of other fabric markers and chalk pencils, including the difficulty of creating visible marks on dark colored fabrics. Marking on knit fabrics can be tricky, since the fabric may stretch if too much pressure is applied. The chalk wheel solves these problems by laying down a fine and precise line of chalk without needing to apply pressure to the fabric. Replace the chalk cartridge with a different color if needed, to ensure the chalk lines will be visible.
Get a chalk wheel like the one Nicki uses here.
Learn how to remove a chalk mark from fabric without a trace and without damage to the fabric by brushing it away using some excess material.
For more tips on how to mark fabric and other fabric marking methods, check out these resources:
Testing Fabric Markers
How to Choose a Fabric Marking Tool
Pattern Marking Methods
There are lots of different marking methods available from pens, pencils, markers and chalk and some are better for some fabrics than others. When you are marking on a darker fabric, you need something lighter like a chalk. But the chalk pencils sometimes you have to push so hard that they're not great for working on knits because when you have to push so hard to make a mark that knit stretches and your mark isn't going to be straight and reliable. A chalk chunk can work well, but those can get dull and blunt. And even if they do lay down a nice line, sometimes you still have to push hard and sometimes that line when it gets dull, that line gets thick and it's not very precise.
So my favorite marking method for 90% of instances and fabrics is this chalk wheel. Now, you have, there are different colors of chalk that you can put in this little cartridge blues and reds and yellows. And when you make a mark with your chalk wheel, you do not have to push that hard at all and it lays down a really nice fine line. So when you're working on delicate fabrics that maybe a velvet that you don't want to crush or knits. Like I mentioned, where you don't want to push too hard or it will stretch the fabric something delicate um in other ways that some pencils and markers, you might be worried that the mark might not remove from the fabric.
Chalk. And this chalk wheel is a really great option. You get a nice precise line and when you want to remove that mark, you can either wash it or if the fabric isn't able to be washed, you can just take some extra fabric and brush it away and that mark disappears with no damage to the fabric.
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