How I Mark Sewing Points on Fabric

One question I've been asked is how I mark my sewing lines on fabric.

My short answer is, "Erm, I don't."

The long answer is, "I mark points, and then sew straight or curved lines between those points, using the presser foot width to keep the seam allowances uniform."

I am becoming more aware that some of my sewing methods differ from those used by other people. I don't know how much is a consequence of culture, or Homec, or having started sewing lessons one generation ago, or living in my mother's house, but I can see how these methods might seem odd to other folks.

Resuming sewing now that I stay home with the kids, I have also learnt new ways to do old things, which I am thrilled about. Here's an example:

Old method of unpicking a seam: Unpick a few stitches at the start of a seam to release about 1.5" of thread. Then unpick a stitch about six inches down to create an end to that thread, and pull that 6" of thread out. Repeat every 6 inches or so till the end of the seam. Works in many but not all cases, like when the stitches are very, very fine.

New method of unpicking a seam (learnt from my friend Jen about two? three? years ago, immediately forgot and remembered only last month): Cut every three stitches along the seam. Then pull thread out from the underside. Entire seam will unravel, but must get lint roller to pick up the cut threads on the top side, or else scrape madly with fingernails. Either way, hurrah!

In grateful response for all these fun new lessons, I thought I'd share one of my Old Sewing Methods: How I Mark Sewing Points on Fabric. Maybe everyone does it this way, in which case I will feel very daft doing a tutorial on it. But maybe it is another newish method of doing an old thing for some of you.

First, a photo of some of the things that I sometimes use to make marks on fabric:

Left to right: Carbonized tracing paper (two kinds) with tracing wheel, color pencils, eraseable fabric markers (some are air-eraseable and some are water-eraseable), tailor's chalk.

I use a lot of my drafting pencils (they're just two-ended color pencils) and erasable fabric markers. I never use my carbon paper unless I am transferring embroidery designs.

But on to the tutorial:

Step 1

Cut notches or holes at the important points on your pattern that are not at corners- waist, hip, darts, etc. These are especially useful for tracing this pattern onto another sheet of paper, if you want to save the original - you just mark through the holes. Also my patterns have no seam allowances, which also makes it easier to trace around them onto paper. But I digress.

Step 2

Fold fabric so that the right sides are OUTSIDE (wrong sides facing in). Counter-intuitive maybe, but bear with me.

Step 3

Lay out and pin paper pattern to the fabric. Iron any folds (usually center front or center back if no zippers or button plackets).

Here's a closer-up picture of the waist notch area - where the purple marker is.

In the above photos, ignore the ridiculous seam allowances in the lower half of the pattern. The paper pattern is Jenna's sloper (will yield a sheath dress - and which child enjoys wearing a sheath dress?); the fabric thing is Jenna's muslin mock-up, in spite of it being pink and floral seersuckerish and not muslin at all. Might as well sew it into a wearable garment, I thought. Jenna picked out the fabric herself at the store, incidentally. Remember how she used to love blue? Sniff. No longer.

Step 4

Pin through the holes/notches you cut in Step 1, so that the pins (in the photo, these are the black pins) go through both layers. The holes/notches you cut will allow you to pin through the fabric without having to actually poke through the paper.

Step 5

At the corners (shoulder point, neck point, bottom of armscye etc, fold back the top layer of fabric over the corner of the paper pattern and mark on both layers (wrong side). I realize that this method works when your patterns have no seam allowances; if yours do, use the pin-method in Step 6 or 7 or just trim them off the pattern itself. The heavier brown paper I use gives sturdier corners over which it is easy to fold the fabric.

Shoulder point:

Side of Neck point:


Center of back neck point:



Step 6

At the sides (waist point, hip point), fold back the top layer of fabric until you see the pin (or the stuck-together fabric bit where the pin has gone through the layers), and mark both layers (wrong side). You will feel the pin under your pencil tip/marker nib even if you can't see it.


Waist point (side):

Step 7

At internal points (e.g. dart points), remove all the pins along the outline of the pattern so that you can fold back the top layer of fabric to expose the pinned point you want to mark (in this case, the side dart point. Mark point on both layers (wrong side).

Side point of dart:


Then remove that pin and continue to expose and mark the next pinned point -

Mid-line of dart - has three points:


Remove those pins, continue folding back the top layer to expose the next pinned point and mark it, until all the points are marked.

Step 8

Remove all the pins. All the important sewing points are marked on the wrong side of your garment pieces.

Here's an annotated version of that last photo, showing the points:

The only other thing I do after this is fold the darts along their midlines and iron/press those midlines.

The positions of these points also indicates the seam allowance for the seams that start from those points because of their distance from the edges of the fabric. I sew from point to point, using the presser foot to keep the seam allowance constant.

If I want to be especially precise, I might also draw the dart lines with a ruler and chalk/eraseable marker on one side of the dart, so that I will sew a true straight line between dart points.

So now you know the reasons for my quaint and somewhat shocking sewing habits, like why I

1. use that brown paper for my patterns instead of tissue paper
2. don't have seam allowances in my patterns
3. am not so excited about using commercial patterns (which violate 1 and 2)
4. lay out my patterns on the right side of the fabric

I am guessing, but do most people use carbon paper and a tracing wheel to transfer entire sewing lines onto each piece of fabric? It seems like a lot of work, although nowhere as labor-intensive as tailor's tacking, which we were taught to do in Homec. Gotta love Homec, but who now has that luxury of time?