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 am learning how to free-motion quilt. I’d use the transfer paper to set up some practice squares.
What a great product! I would use these for marking my crazy quilting motifs, or my free motion quilting, or my applique placement. So many potential uses!
I’d like it for hand quilting. I always rub chalk off before I even get to that place to quilt it. I too am always trying new things for quilting designs and am usually disappointed.
Great review! i would use it to mark applique placement, and also for marking some design placement ideas. I hadn’t seen this product before, thanks for bringing it to my attention! I am sure I would find other uses for it too.
I would try it for marking quilts for free motion quilting. I’m always worried that the products I use won’t come out, so this product sounds like one I should add to my bag of tricks!
I’m doing a BOM with a stitchery center and I would use the paper for next months block rather than holding it up to a window!
I can see many uses for this product – so glad you shared it with us!
This product sounds great. I would love to use it when I applique.
Sorry – in my post I didn’t say how I would use it! I do a lot of needle turn applique combined with embroidery on many of the applique pieces – I can see where the tracing paper would be very useful in marking those tiny little pattern lines.
I would use it for hand and machine quilting, I’m so afraid that the marks i do don’t go away when I wash it
I immediately thought of how this will help in my free-motion quilting design! Then I went over to your “back-basting” tutorial and got another inspiration! Love your blog! :o)
This sounds like a great product. I would like to learn applique , and free motion quilting. I would love to try it.
Freemanor
It looks like it would be great for applique, as you say, but I’d also be interested in trying it out on an embroidery project. Thanks for the review!
This product sounds wonderful! I would primarily use it for marking quilting designs, but it would be great for applique and marking design placement too. How wonderful not to have to worry whether or not the markings will come out! :)
I think I’ll try some on black background.
I think this paper would be great for applique. Not only for marking applique pieces but for marking the background for perfect placement.
I’ve always wanted to try stenciling – This would actually be a perfect way to do that – just copy your stencil design, and paint with thickened dyes or fabric paint. If the lines wash away, it would probably be the best method on the market for this technique!
I would definitely use this for my Redwork embroidery – thank you for such a generous offer and opportunity. Judy C judyandmartyn@nc.rr.com
http://www.shadetreequilting.com
I would also love to try this product to mark hand quilting lines. I used to use an air erasable pen a lot, but now I live where it is more humid & the ink fades faster than I can quilt. I am starting to do more applique’ so I can see where this would really come in handy for that also.
I’m always looking for good ways to mark quilting lines. Wonder how it would work for that?
Great product review. I’d be interested in using this to mark designs for free-motion quilting.
I’d use it to transfer my design to machine quilt since I’m not good thinking of a design. Thanks for the chance to win this product.
I would use the light colors to mark my dark backgrounds for applique placement as I dislike using overlays!
I would love to try using these papers for transferring designs onto dupioni silk for ribbon and thread work. Thanks for the opportunity!
This looks like a great product to use for tracing embroidery and applique placement. Thanks for the review and a chance to win!
I have been making a set of Angry Birds for my grandson and this would be perfect for marking where the beaks, eyes and eyebrows go. He loves throwing the eggs at the piggies and pretending that he is defending his birds eggs. We have such long winters that he needed something he could play inside without hurting anything.
I got the patterns from http://obsessivelystitching.blogspot.com/2010/12/angry-birds-plush.html.
You did a great review! thanks.
This looks like just the ticket for marking hand-quilting lines. I tried to old stuff a few years ago & it was awful!
Looks like a product I’d like to use for machine quilting–you are so right about the chalk disappearing!
Thanks so much!
Carole
I’ve been wanting to try this and am glad to see your review so that I know it works.
I’d use this to make my own embroidery pattern from a picture that I like.
ABreading4fun [at] gmail [dot] com
I’d love to try this!
I would use it for machine quilting lines. I remember that same old stuff from home-ec class. Infact one of my old tables has all those little tracing wheel lines.
Ooh, I can see printing out a word or name, then tracing the letters for ideal spacing!
I have lots of quilting/applique patterns that would be GREAT for this. I red work waiting to get done. It will be wonderful to mark a quilt and not have chalk or ink disappear before I finish. It’s a very exciting product.
I would use it to mark placement for applique and machine quilting. I remember the old stuff and wheel also, this will be a wonderful improvement!
I remember the tracing wheel, I still have mine. I love to do machine embroidery and quilts this would be a good tool to make the quilting lines to guide me around the embroidery designs, don’t want to cover them up.
As well as using it myself for embroidery patterns/ applique and quilting, my grandchildren would find this a perfect product to use to trace their own drawings onto fabric/felt ready for stitching.
This product is not for sale here in Molde, Norway. I would like to try it on my quilts!
Trine
I would use it to trace my stitchery patterns as well as my quilting lines ( I’m not an experienced quilter yet).
I would definately use this for quilting!
Looks like the ticket for marking hand quilting lines!
Thanks for sharing this with us.
This would be wonderful for marking my DOTS on hand pieced items. Getting the corner dots marked precisely is important to getting my pieces to fit together nicely. Hope I win and can give it a try!
This stuff looks FANTASTIC…. I think that I would use it to transfer embroider patterns on to dark fabric…. it would be so sweet!
I would use the Saral transfer paper for maarking motifs for Crazy Quilting. It looks like it would be great.
I have a set of vintage handkerchiefs from my mother. I could use this paper to trace the senorita pattern on the background fabric with the hankies becoming the skirt for the embroidered senoritas.
I would love to try that “Horse head” quilt for my daughter. I tried all the other ways to trace the heads on my fabric, only to give up and do something else!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this product. I have seen it about 10 years ago and at that point used it for decorative paint transferring. I had no idea that it could be used on fabric, nor be aware that it would wash away. What a great idea however, living in a regional area know it will be hard to find. I would love to be in the giveaway, as can see that this is something that I would use, particuarly with the different colours – just ideal – thanks for sharing.
This would be the perfect item for my stitcheries I am sick to death of my lines vanishing before completing my projects…
I am a beginning “art quilter.” I’m thinking this product would be very helpful for marking placement for beading and embroidery. I might also try using it for designing a quilt label.