Tool School: Tracing Paper “Chacopy”
By Steve Butler
What is it?– Fashion, fashion accessories, heirloom sewing, quilting and home decor. All of these projects are often one time or another blank canvases that are truly enhanced with the addition of the appropriate decorative pattern. Some of these pattern designs are professionally developed while others are original work we’ve created all by ourselves. Beautiful, often meaningful patterns for sewing, quilting and embroidery. But they’re all usually on paper and we are not sewing on paper. How do we move them to our fabric in a manner that allows us to complete our project just as we’ve envisioned it? And what about fashion construction? All of those pattern markings. You know, the notches and points that help us match up the pieces of our garment precisely. How do we transfer all of them accurately to our cut fabric pieces? Remember, sloppy is un-seamly. Oh, and don’t forget the darts. There’s nothing worse than uneven darts. So how do we do it, how do we accurately move our designs and marks from the paper source to our fabric destination? It’s easy. Clover has developed “Chacopy” Tracing Paper, a chalk-based tracing paper that allows us to transfer our sewing, quilting and embroidery patterns or fashion construction markings to our fabric with ease and precision. Just trace over the marks. It takes the tedium out of transfer.
What does it do?- Clover Chacopy Tracing Paper is a single sided, chalk based tracing paper that enables us to easily and accurately transfer any paper based design or mark to our fabric.
Tracing Paper “Chacopy”
Art. No 434
Colors – Chacopy Tracing Paper is available as a set of five colors on individual 10″ x 12″ sheets. All we have to do is select the color that contrasts enough to show prominently on our fabric. Colors included are: blue, green, red, white and yellow. One of those should meet any requirements we might come across. For complex patterns we can even use two or more colors.
Application – Chacopy Tracing Paper is easy to use. If we are transferring a design to our fabric we just need to lay the tracing paper face down on the right side of our fabric and place the design we’ve selected on the back of that. Using a stylus or a tracing wheel, simply trace over the design, transferring the chalk to our fabric. You may want to tape the design to the Chacopy Paper to keep it from moving while tracing. Keep in mind that if you’re going to hoop the fabric you’ll need to leave enough space around your design to accommodate that hoop. If we’re transferring the marks of a pattern to a cut pattern piece we simply lay the Chacopy Paper face up on a smooth surface. Then lay the cut pattern piece on top of it. Now the chalk surface of the paper is next to the wrong side of the fabric. Again, using a stylus or tracing wheel, simply trace over the pattern marks. They will be transferred to the wrong side of the fabric where you want them. Once our designs or marks are no longer needed we can simply wash them away. They don’t smear and they always wash out. One caution though. As with any chalk based marker, ironing may make the marks difficult to remove. It’s always a good idea to test any marking on a scrap of your fabric before using.
How do I share it? – Clover Chacopy Tracing Paper is the absolute easiest way to transfer designs or pattern markings onto our fabric. Clear, precise lines and marks that enable us to achieve our creative intent. The best way to share it is to show it. Place some sheets of Chacopy Paper, a simple pattern and some fabric out for your friends to test. And, of course, feature it in your classes. Using the white Chacopy Paper with dark or black fabric is particularly effective. Once people see how easy and effective it is they’ll be looking at ways to use it. Pattern and design transfer, no muss, no fuss, the Chacopy way.
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