Marking Ripstop - and a sail repair question.

There are no nearish festivals this weekend, (and I don't have the diesel to get to Chelmsford :O(), so apart from a visit to the Zoo with the kids, I'm at a bit of a loose end. Figured I'd make a Tric Tac. Got some black and white stuff and was just about to start when it dawned on me that I have absolutely no idea how to draw the pattern on the black stuff. Any ideas? I know about drapers chalk but anything better? ... and preferably wash/wipe offable.

Aik.

PS Oh yeah, the sail repair thing. Anyone seen a Betterware catalogue lately - there's a fabric repair kit that does invisible repairs, even delicate fabrics. Is this a good thing or a bad thing for ripstop?

Pencil, it shows up OK against black if you work in good light. On icky at least you can remove it with a soft eraser, the softer the better. It doesn't come off K42 but ISTR it came off Chikara OK too.

Hi Aik,

Black isn't my favourite colour of material to sew, but I use a silver quilter's pencil when I do. It makes a light grey mark that will erase, but I try and place the lines so that they will be hidden after the kite is finished. I get them at a fabric in the sewing supplies/notions department.

Well, thanks for the replies, but I found a way I can, well, to be brutally honest, cheat. We have, at work, a huge roll of polythene. It's 6ft wide and that's folded double - i.e. 12ft wide total. What I'm doing is putting the ripstop in between the two halves of the sheet, marking on the sheet and cutting too - the static holds everything flat/smooth/together. This has the bonus of making each sail exactly the same, seams and all, so I can use a stop on the sewing machine to get two evenly matched sails! And not marking the ripstop. And a pretend sail to play with to get the frame right :O)

Koh-I-Noor makes these great pencils that are like crayons but there is no wrapper around them. They are a bit harder than crayons and can easily be sharpened so you can maintain a sharp time.They are called Progresso 8750. It is easy to remove with several gum removers that are non-toxic to humans or to nature. Forget that dang name though. Kathy Goodwind