100 Details in 100 Days: Day 4

I already talked about using spray starch as a barrier when you are transferring a design with pencil. It not only makes it easier to wash out any stray pencil marks, it allows you to use a white plastic eraser while you are transferring the design.

I get a lot of questions about pencils. I do have a special Quilt Marking Pencil that I keep in my traveling sewing kit. But at home, I never bother to get it out, I just use graphite pencils. Graphite art pencils come in hard (designated by an H) and soft (designated by a B.) For marking fabric, I prefer hard graphite, usually a 2H or 3H. Occasionally, I use a special pencil called a Sketch and Wash, which is a graphite pencil that is water soluble.

As long as I use starch, I never have any trouble removing my pencil marks. Before I started using starch, I found that soap with a high concentration of olive oil (like savon d' Marseille) worked wonders!

I almost never use blue washable pens, because of all of the horror stories. These days, when I do use a pen with washable ink, it is always one a project I plan to finish and wash within a week. Even though it has never happened to me, all the apocryphal stories about the ink reappearing have soured me on them.