Quilt Marking Tool Testing & Reviews

by Chelsea Hard 

Hello! If you don't know me (why would you?), I am Chelsea, Tara's Operations Assistant. You can usually find me answering emails, moderating Block Studies Zoom sessions, and helping write copy for Tara's video courses, website and this blog. Tara sometimes introduces me as the one who "bosses her to victory," which translates to "makes spreadsheets with dates on them and asks occasionally if something is done yet." Either way! Here I am! Nice to meet you! 

In this post, we're going to get into the challenging question of what marking tools are safe to use to mark quilting lines on your quilt tops. 

BIG DISCLAIMER: Even having done the following test, I want to provide a warning up front here (and probably again later) that this test was done with specific fabric from my stash, marks were left on the fabric for 24-48 hours and results may be different on your quilt top and depending how long marks are left on before washing. Basically, always test your marking tool on your fabric before you trust anything and don't come for us if it doesn't work out! 

I teach beginning quilting in-person and in a walking foot quilting class, I kept getting the same questions over and over about what tools did I trust to draw quilting lines on my quilt tops. My answer was always "none of them!" The only tool I have ever really trusted is a Hera Marker. This tool sets a crease into your fabric so there really is basically zero risk here. It irons or washes out and if you're sewing over the crease, it really doesn't even show. 

So what about the dozens of marking pens and pencils and chalks on the market? I will admit that when I set out to do this test, I did it for my own personal use so the documentation is pretty minimal and I didn't get a photo with all of the marking tools (some of which I borrowed from other quilting pals).  

The Test: Test all available (to me) marking tools by marking dark and light fabric, heat setting half of the test, washing, drying & placing in the freezer to see if the marks disappeared. 

The Tools: 

1. Roxanne's Quilters Choice
2. Generals's Charcoal White
3. Water Erasable <Fine> Clover
4. White Marking Pen <Fine> Clover
5. White Chaco Liner
6. White Water Soluble Clover
7. Pink Water Soluble Pencil Clover
8. White Standard Peely Pencil
9. Mark B Gone
10. Fixion Felt Tip
11. Fixion Ballpoint (black)
12. Frixion Ballpoint (red)
13. Crayola Washable Marker (red)
14. Crayola Washable Marker (blue)
15. Crayola Washable Marker (orange)
16. Blue Triangle Tailor's Chalk (no brand)
17. Bohin Blue Pencil
18. Bohin White Pencil
19. Water Erasing Styla
20. Sewline Ceramic (white)
21. Sewline Ceramic (pink)
22. Sewline Air Erasing
23. Air + White Soluble Ink
24. Pentel Gel Roller for Fabric (permanent) 
25. Sharpie Ulta Fine Point (permanent)

 My Thoughts: 

Frankly, I was shocked by the results. Nearly all the tools washed out or washed out in a way that if you had quilted over the top of them (with the exceptions of those noted in the grid below) you wouldn't have been able to see the lines. 

A lot of the chalk pencils, frankly, weren't any fun to use because they were so dry, had lots of drag and well... were chalky. Even where they washed out, I much preferred the experience of using something with more of a marker tip that didn't have drag when you ran it across the fabric. 

The absolute standout from an experience and writing smoothness perspective was the Sewline Water Erasing Styla. 

I tried to be extremely critical of the results in the grid below, because I hate to tell you this, but even when I zoom in on the photo I just took, I can't see the faint lines left behind from some of the marking tools. If something wasn't faint (I'm talking about you Crayola Red), I noted that too.

I was really surprised (though I suppose maybe parents won't be) that besides red, the Crayola markers washed out. Am I ever going to use a Crayola marker on my quilt top? Still no. 

The Frixion pens all washed out, including the red pen and did not reappear when left in the freezer or leave ghost marks when heat set, BUT I know that some folks have had them leave a ghost mark and those in the test were left on for a very brief period, so again, would I mark my quilt top with them (these pens that aren't intended for fabric use)? Again, no. Am I going to keep using them to mark the cut lines on a HST? Sure. 

I hope these results were helpful! Always test! I'm not thinking this far ahead when I start a quilt, but it might be a good idea to test your marking tool on some fabric swatch at the beginning of making your quilt top (so it gets left on the fabric for a while) and then do the test yourself. Then if it takes you 700 days to hand quilt something, you will at least have an idea if your chosen marking tool will be removable. Or you could take the optimist route and go "Well, didn't all this stuff wash out? Let's just draw all over this thing!" The choice is yours! 

What will I really do instead of that? Use a Hera Marker, because even after the test, even after the successes, it all makes me a little nervous! What do you think? What's your favorite marking tool? What are your marking tool horror stories? We want to know! Leave them in the comments.

The Results: