Replies

1. 
   SkiNsew | Aug 01, 2008 04:20pm | #1

   I think this is a special pattern tracer that is not usually used in connection with the marking of darts etc on cloth.  The spokes are sharp pin points.  I use mine for knocking off ready made clothes.  I pin large pieces of butcher paper ( you can use any type of paper that will give you a big enough area) onto a large cork board.  Then I smooth out the piece of the garment that I want to trace over this paper and pin it down.  For example if I am doing a blouse I might smooth out a 1/2 sleeve or a bodice piece.  I then use this tracing wheel to go over all of the seam lines that I want to transfer.  The needle points prick through the cloth and leave a small series of dots on the paper (almost like perforating it).  You can then connect all of the dots and cut out the paper.  Wala!  A pattern piece.

   HTH, Mary

2. 
   artfulenterprises | Aug 06, 2008 06:13pm | #2

   I don't know the brand name of your tracing wheel, but if, indeed, it is a perforating tracing wheel with sharp little spikes all around, it is a professional patternmaking wheel. Couldn't live without it! You can certainly use it with tailor's carbon to mark fabric but it has many other uses as well. It's great for remarking patterns after adjusting the fit on a muslin, great for duplicating pattern pcs or making a half pattern into a full pattern, etc. etc. etc. You will find many ways to simplify your sewing life with it.