Aging myself here, but do you remember back in highschool taking home economics class and one of the things we just had to have in our supply list was coloured waxed paper and a tracing wheel? I hated that stuff with a passion. It rubbed off so easily and just made a heck of a mess. It wasn’t too long ago that I found that original pack from highschool in a file folder. I unearthed it and blue and yellow crap everywhere. What a messy discovery that was. No, I have no idea why I had kept it all these years.
Let’s fast forward to, ya know, the current century, and take a look at Saral’s Wax-Free Transfer Paper. The folks at Saral were kind enough to send me a sampler package to play with.
In the sampler package comes 5 sheets of transfer paper, one of each colour: white, red, yellow, blue and black (graphite):
If life hadn’t gone a little crazy earlier this year, I’d actually have my bed quilt ready for quilting and could show you how the transfer paper works on an actual project. Instead, I grabbed a couple of scrap blocks to test with.
The transfer paper is pretty thin, not quite as thin as tracing paper, but thinner than regular printer paper and slightly delicate. I used the edge of a regular mechanical pencil to draw my lines. A ball point pen or an unpointed tool like a stylus would have been better. I had to press lightly with my pencil so as not to tear the paper.
I drew four lines on my dark fabric: white, red and two yellow lines. I wanted to test the smudge-ability and if the line erased too quickly just with handling. You’ll see the top of the red line and the first yellow line where I tried to rub it off, quite vigorously with my hands. While they are a lighter, they can still be seen quite easily. Very handy when machine quilting, as I hate when chalk products or disappearing ink vanishes before I can finish the project.
I did the same rub off test with the blue transfer paper on a scrap of white fabric, sorry the picture is a bit blurry:
The next test was to see how easy does it come off the fabric when I’m all done with it. Before I did this test, I heat-set with a hot iron and steam, as if my test fabrics were the background of appliqué blocks. I then used a moistened cloth and lightly pressed it to the lines. The blue fabric came out very quickly and the white just needed an extra rub to get the line to disappear.
I was impressed, especially that I could heat-set it and it washed out just perfectly. I’m really big into appliqué these days and this will be fantastic for drawing my placement lines on my background fabric. I also want to try back-basting appliqué and this will be really useful for that too. For me, it’s all about being able to wash away my lines when I’m done with them. Of course, I’ll be sure to test my actual project fabric, just in case.
I could also use it to draw my quilting lines and have the confidence that the lines are not going to vanish before I finish the quilt. Saral has a really useful web site, so you can read more usage ideas over there. You can buy economy rolls of the product too.
This is one product that has definitely improved since my high school years.
Now for the give-away! Saral has generously donated 10 sampler packages for my blog readers. Each package contains one 8 1/2″x11″ sheet of each colour as shown above. To enter the give-away, leave a comment below telling me creatively how you would use this product. Winners will be chosen next Wednesday.
QuiltAlbum Blog Hop
Don’t forget to visit today’s bloggers in the QuiltAlbum Blog Hop. Come back tomorrow for my special day!
- Linda lum deBono – Dzyning Things
- Vanessa Christenson – V and Co.
P.S. Facebook friends, you must enter on the blog post itself to be entered in the give-away. Click here to enter.
I would definitely use it to draw quilt designs for my quilting. I’m still working on free motion quilting, but following a design makes it so much easier. And I would use it easy embroidery transfer. I’d like to try it.
Looks interesting. Would like to try it.
This would be helpfull for applique would love to try it
I would love to try this product. It’s uses seems endless.
Looks very interesting. I can use it with free motion quilting to give a few great marks. I can use it free embroidery to sign the pattern. I can use it to scetch for a art quilt.
Can we buy it in Europe ? greetings from liesbeth
I love this paper and have used it for the last 20 years unfortunately now I am having difficulty buying it here in OZ. Thank goodness its reusable. I can honestly recommend it and have family members trying to find it for me. I will now check out there web site. Thanks heaps for informing me where to find it.
I would use it for applique. It would really help with accurate placement.
I would use this paper to work on my machine quilting. I am new to this and need all the help I can get! lol
Would love to try this out! I’m a beginner quilter so this would come in handy. I too think it would be great for hand embroidery. Thanks!
I am a hand quilter, and I am always looking for a product that makes a thin line and comes off easily. This sounds great. I have several projects waiting to be quilted. I would love to try this and then blog about it if I like it. Please enter me in the drawing. I promise I’ll put it to good use. PS: I have an applique project coming up, too. Maybe I could use it for that, too.
I’m getting ready to start a big red work project. This sounds like the way to mark it! I also like the idea that it comes in rolls and you can use it to mark your quilting designs. Thanks for testing it for us.
This looks like great stuff! If I were to get into “a” like everyone else is (I’m trying!!!), I’d say it would be great for placement lines on the background fabric. There are a few projects using this technique of my boys I want to do…this would work well for that! Also cool is the idea it can be purchased in rolls! Thanks for the opportunity for us all!
I would use it for many marking uses.
I still have some tracing paper and my wheel. I always thought it was a great tool.
I would love to win this tracing paper. I have a wheel, but have not been able to find this tracing paper.
I wouldn’t mind trying it.
yes, I remember this product from way back in my high school home economics classes. I haven’t used it for years but would like to try it again for marking quilting lines, embroidery or back basting applique. It would be a great product for those techniques.
Oooh. I’ve been wanting to try out transfer paper for embroidery patterns lately. Hopefully I will win some here! Thanks for the contest offer.
I would love to try it on Sashiko designs!
I so badly need something like this! I do a lot of machine applique and the dark fabrics are just so hard to trace anything on! The same holds true for hand embroidery. I have a light box but dark fabrics are not good with these older eyes. I have a big embroidery project I want to work on – 12 blocks and they’re pretty involved. This would make that so much easier. Thanks! blessings, marlene
I would try it with simple embrodiery work, instead of the blue pen thing. Sounds wonderful. Thanks for the chance to win.
I’d use it to work on improving my appliqué skills and on my landscape quilts.
I would definitely try marking quilts prior to quilting them! Thanks for the chance to win.
I have been doing embroidery and applique lately and would love to try this product. Thanks for the info and pictures of how you are trialing it. And for the chance to win some to try :-)
This transfer paper sounds like the perfect method to use to transfer my cloth doll patterns to the fabric! I am always upset when even the lightest of pencil lines show through the fabric for the tiny faces and fingers of the faeries.
NEAT! I’D SURE TRY IT WITH REDWORK!
THANKS FOR SHARING!
oh for redwork, embroidery for sure! looks terrific!
Can’t wait to try this product out. Thanx for the review.
My dream is to design and quilt a whole cloth quilt and I can see where this product would work perfectly for transferring my designs. Thanks for the give-away :)
I am so excited to see this. I am needing something that will mark well on dark fabrics for my embroidery work.
This looks like it would be great for marking designs for thread painting, and for marking quilting lines. It would also work for marking the layout of pieces of a fused applique project on the background fabric, since the fusing process won’t erase the lines or make them permanent. Thanks for the review, and the give-away.
A great giveaway, Thanks! And a great review! This product sounds like something I would like to try.
I would love to try it with wool. Wool is a hard material to get transfer lines to adhere and this sounds like it might work with wool.
Maybe even with marking for hand quilting…. Lots of ideas.
I have seen this product being used a lot lately.. I would love to win some so that I can try it out as well. Thanks for the chance to win!
Looks like a great product. I’ll have to see if I can purchase it. Thnx for the give-away.
Great review. I have been dying to try this product. I can see so many uses for it, but especially in my free form applique process. I typically draw my designs on tear-away and work from the back, but with this product, I could eliminate that step altogether : )
I was really interested to read your review as I’ve been trying to find a product that would work for tracing designs for stitchery blocks as well as for applique placement. Saral sounds like it absolutely fits the bill! I’d love a chance to try it out!
I’d love to try this out on both applique and embroidery – especially on dark fabrics. My first project with it would be some embroidery on dark fabric for a bag that’s been waiting for just the right marking tool since last fall!
I have an applique project just waiting for something like this to make my life easier! Would love to try it out.
oh well now this does look as though it is a VAST improvement over the stuff we used to use. I can see this a being a valuable tool for many processes in the quilt world. Sometimes you just want to be able to set down some “guide”lines for FMQ, this would be terrific to use in trapunto as well. I am amazed that you can still remove it even after it has been ironed………that alone is a major advantage!
Don’t you just LOVE all the new goodies being developed especially for us quilters!
Wonderful. I think Iwould used this to mark some guide points for free motion quilting. I almost ready to break out of the simple meandering, as much as I love it. Would love to win!
That transfer paper looks like just the thing I need to finish all my quilt UFOs! I have so many quilt tops waiting to be quilted, but OH! how to mark the design on a multicolored top?
I love to applique also and this just sounds great, just what I need:-) I would love to win this.
I would use this to mark applique, quilting designs and to mark darts and seam lines in garment sewing. I still have my tracing wheel from my middle school home ec class! And that’s a long time ago.
I would love to try this on making my own redwork lines, quite interesting to me.
I would tri this on applique. Looks very interesting!
I have used the white Saral. I bought it for my first attempt at quilting, and I found that I could draw my quilting lines and stitch them with ease. Thanks,
I am constantly trying out new pencils, chalk, blue wash out pens for the perfect marking tool for quilting designs. I would love to use these to draw out my own quilting designs for my quilt top and also to use them to draw out thread embroider designs on my totes, wall quilts and book covers I’ve been making. I’m really excited about the chance to try these out! Thank you to you and Saral for offering this generous giveaway!!!
Not a very fast quilter. I hate when the patterns vanishes before I’m done
Great product review. I’d be interested in using this product to mark for applique, but primarily to mark designs for free-motion quilting.
SewCalGal
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