These are the markers I use or have used in the past.

My favourite now is the Sewline, it fades after a day or a few hours, depending on the fabric and weather.

I tested at night and the lines were almost gone by morning.

These are good, they disappear when the garment is ironed, they come in blue, red, black and white. The black doesn’t last long and the white is no good at all. They are refills but I’ve never bought the pen; they work just fine.

These are water erasable and are OK to draw around a pattern or on the wrong side of a piece, but I wouldn’t use them where the marking will show. The top one has a little brush in the other end to wet and remove the markings.

For dark fabric, there is good old French chalk and a rotary marker which works very well, it’s filled with powdered chalk and leaves a dotted line. Once again, the white pen doesn’t work.

I bought a French Chalk sharpener, I find that the action of dragging it across the fabric not only blunts it but polishes it, this little sharpener is excellent, the only thing to remember is that it has a catcher and it needs to be emptied often because if it opens, the chalk dust is very messy.

One type of marker I wouldn’t recommend is coloured French Chalk, it can leave permanent marks.

I used to use a 6B pencil which is fine until something goes wrong, it will erase a little but needs to be washed out. I used it to draw around the pattern pieces but it’s basically in retirement now.

There are new Sewline pencils in five colours that I am going to buy, they may work, the leads are replaceable, much like a propelling pencil.

Back to the machine.
Regards,
Will.