Pattern tracing fun

Something I’ve avoided for ages (and ages) (and aaaaages) is tracing patterns.

Heck, I’ve avoided it so hard, I have a bunch of patterns in my stash I’ve been wanting to make but haven’t because I needed to trace them first. Some of those have been there a good couple of years now.

I admit it – tracing kinda scared me. I didn’t really know what to trace onto – tracing paper seemed the obvious choice, but the size of the sheets meant I would have had to keep taping them together. Which isn’t fun at all.

Then a while back, another lovely blogger suggested tracing onto interfacing. I tried it, and whaddaya know – it worked wonderfully! So I traced…. one pattern. (And made this shirt over here with it.)

Then the Burda Sew-along came along, and suddenly I needed to trace a bunch more patterns. I trundled along to Made on Marion to buy some more interfacing, and the amazing Mr C instead sold me a far, far better thing.

An amazing thing.

A thing I never would have thought of.

A big, long length of the sort of stuff that upholsters use at the bottom of chairs. You know the stuff? It’s lightweight and strong and, as it turns out, is great for tracing patterns. It doesn’t tear, doesn’t stretch along the bias, and is nice and transparent while still allowing you to write on it easily with a pen.

Check it out:

Transparent enough to see the pattern markings through easily – woo hoo!

(Yes, that’s the La Sylphide dress from Papercut I’m tracing. And as soon as I’m finished this post, I’m off to go sew some of it up, wee hee!)

Update: I’ve been informed by the amazing Mrs C that the best-fitting name for this stuff is very, very fine landscapers tissue. Hope that helps anyone who is trying to track it down! If you find it’s called by another name in other countries, I’d love to know what it’s called where you are. 🙂

It’s also super cheap. So, you know, next time you need something to trace on, I highly recommended getting some of this stuff. ‘Tis the bees knees!