One Designer's Journey: Permanent? Fabric Markers

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Permanent? Fabric Markers

After my ordeal with the Bleeding Sharpies, I ordered some Markers marketed especially for fabric. Following are the results of my trials.

These Markers are SET by ironing the back side for 5 minutes.

This is the first marker set that arrived. Therefore, the first tried. At first I thought I had wasted money sending for 2 sets at once. NO, I had not.

Above is the Marker Set plus my marks on a 6.5" square of prewashed fabric. After waiting 24 hours+, ironing, hand washing, then repeating these last 2 steps twice, here is the result. It looks like the red is finally not going to come off with ironing. There was no visible color runoff in the water at any time during the wash or rinse cycles.

After ironing the back side of the fabric on top of newsprint.

Maybe these will work? Not so fast. See the shrinkage.

I photographed them on my rather worn out cutting board. This was prewashed fabric, cut into a 6.5" square. NOT square or 6.5" anymore. If you look closely, it seems that more color = more shrinkage. See how it dips at the top of the yellow? Notice there are 3 color rows below. At the top right, it shrunk a whole half inch where the columns have 5 colors. Not using these on this project.

These colors are SET by letting dry for 24 hours.

It took a few more days for this set to arrive. Glad it finally came. Notice in the above ironing test, NO color came off. No color came off when I hand washed. Therefore, I put this through a double wash - double rinse cycle on my washing machine.

Here is the Final Result

Obviously, these are the ones I will use. Only one marker tip. Not as pointy as I would prefer. Colors are not as dark or bright as I would like. However, being permanent as well as not shrinking the fabric is a BIG Plus.

I liken my choice to this following example.

A neighbor asked me why I kept my snow removal service after they chopped down a $90 Harry Lauder Walking Stick bush plus chewed up the edge of my wooden platform step.

My answer, they show up. Snow removal used to be a BIG problem here in Maine. Looks like global warming is going to lessen that. Of course it is at the expense of those who live in warmer climates.

ADDENDUM.

Super Markers

Ordered on Ebay November 16, 2017