Originally Posted by NJ Quilter

I have a question for those who hand embroider. I have an heirloom Christening gown that I must now embroider three generations of babies who have worn this gown. The grands are on their way! This gown was hand made by a friend of my great-grandmother's for her grandson's (my uncle) Christening. The fabric is, I believe, cotton batiste. I'll be doing everyone's names in a simple back stitch. Still working on the specific font/size to do the names.

My thought has been to lightly trace the name onto the gown to do the embroidery. The big question - what to use to do that; make centering marks; etc.???

I did purchase tear-away stabilizer and a new embroidery hoop yesterday as it's been a very long time since I've done any embroidery and I couldn't remember the status of my tools.

I have all manner of marking tools for my quilting but I usually end up using a #2 pencil on light fabrics and a fine-line chalk mechanical pencil for darker fabrics - either white or pink. I don't think the #2 pencil is the way to go on this. I very occasionally have issues getting those marks out and don't want to take the chance with this item.

Any and all recommendations/suggestions are welcomed and much appreciated.