Five ways to transfer pattern markings to fabric

Transferring your pattern markings onto the fabric itself is an important step that will set you up to sew more easily in later stages of your garment construction. Since we are about to begin the Flint pants sewalong, i thought it would be good to cover this before we start!

I’ve heard from a couple of people that they find transferring pattern markings quite stressful – but honestly, it doesn’t have to be! Today I’ve got three super easy ways for you to transfer your pattern markings from pattern to fabric that will take the stress and headache out of the whole process!

Clipping notches

When it comes to marking notches I think the easiest and clearest way is to clip your seams.

When your pattern and fabric are still pinned together, simple cut directly over the top of your notches through the pattern and fabric. Do not cut the entire width of the seam allowance, this is a short snip roughly 1/4″/5mm or less long.

No matter what method you choose to use for marking your notches, a pattern notcher is a really cool tool to have. It cuts a little channel over your notches, which makes it really easy to mark your notches on your fabric in a variety of ways.

Marking with pins

If the idea of clipping your fabric inside the seam allowance to mark notches scares you, then you can simply place a pin at that point. DONE!

Simply poke a hole through the dart point with an awl or a very sharp pencil.

When marking darts you can push your pin through the dart point, and then on the other piece of fabric push a pin through the same hole on the opposite side. This will result in both sides showing pins through the dart point.

Pencil, chalk or fabric pen

Another great method is to mark your dart points with a pencil, chalk or fabric pen.

Simple poke a hole through the dart point with an awl or a very sharp pencil. If you have a pattern notcher, you can use it to clip your pattern notches on the pattern.

Then after you have cut out your fabric, mark the dart point and the end of the dart legs with a regular pencil (my go to), chalk pencil or washable fabric pen.

Tracing wheel

I’m not going to lie with you, this is my least favourite method, mostly because it always takes me ages to find my tracing paper and wheel hahaha.

You can buy little kits that include a tracing wheel and tracing paper at pretty much any and every sewing store.

You place the tracing paper face down on the fabric with the pattern on top, then run the wheel over the dart legs. These chalk marks will wash out later and have the benefit of showing the exact line you need to sew along, which can take a lot of stress out of whether you are sewing your dart straight.

Tailors tacks

By far my favourite method of transferring pattern markings is using tailors tacks. This is the method we use when working on our samples as it’s fast and accurate and markings are always incredibly easy to see and don’t rub off. Its especially my favourite for marking button hole and button placement, as i find i like to mark those at the beginning of the project at the cutting phase, but chalk can often rub off by the end of the construction when it’s time to work on buttonholes.

With your pattern still pinned to your fabric, simply sew a loose loop over the mark you want to transfer. For example on this release tuck, push your needle through both layers of fabric, then back up though both layers of fabric, then repeat so that you create a loop.

Snip your thread leaving tails on each side and leave the loop loose. When you separate the two layers of fabric, snip through the threads between the two fabrics. This will leave threads on both pieces of fabric in the correct position.