Vellum paper

[Janice]

I read earlier somewhere here to use vellum paper in the pattern

process.

I went out and bought some. Before I get going on this, can some of you go over your methods of pattern transferr for me?

I have reg paper with the pattern drawn on it, that is the stage I am at.

I am pretty new to tooling, and have read so much on here, that now I cant find the posts that I got the idea from in the first place.

Any and all help greatly appreciated!

[budd4766]

Vellum is paper...usually used by drafters...it might not work well transferring anything to you leather if the leather is wet. I would imagine it'd stick and tear and pretty much drive you crazy.

I think Mylar (another drafting medium, more a "plastic" similar to Tandy's transfer paper) would work better, but you have to be careful if you're tracing with ink and give it plenty time to dry before trying to transfer to leather with it.

[whinewine]

Tracing vellum is a heavier grade of tracing paper. I used to get it in long rolls years ago, (and used lots of it & really liked it), but I haven't seen it in a long time. Hidecrafter sells vellum in packs of 10 sheets in various sizes. It outlasts standard tracing paper many times over, but the tracing film sold by tandy is more durable. The only problem is that I feel it might become brittle over time (I have some tracings I made on tandy's tracing film back in the '70s & some {but not all} of them have become brittle & split). I also think tandy's current tracing film is more flimsy than what they sold years ago (maybe it's a different material- but that's another topic entirely).

As far as transferring, you lay the vellum over the pattern & trace it. That's all. Then lay the tracing over the damp leather- use a tracing stylus to trace the pattern. The advantage of vellum or tracing paper or tracing film is that you can see the leather underneath & can do a better alignment, plus you don't waste your original pattern.

russ

[TroyWest]

I use a lot of vellum. I like the sheets that come from Hidecrafters as they are the same size as a regular sheet of paper. They are easy to use and dont roll up on you and will last for years. It is also cheap. You can see thru it well also. Many times I will draw a pattern on regular paper and then put the vellum in my copier and print out the drawing on the vellum. It will go thru the copier just like a regular sheet of paper. Then it doesn't show all the erasure marks, etc. on the original drawing. I can also buy larger sheets of vellum at Hobby Lobby and Walmart large enough to do a saddle seat or fender. When I'm ready to transfer to leather I spray the vellum that will go against the leather with a product called "workable fixatif", available from Hobby Lobby. It keeps the vellum from absorbing water.

Hope that helps,

Troy West

[budd4766]

Must be a different vellum than any I've ever seen. We buy vellum by the roll here at work to go through the CAD plotter. It's just thin, translucent paper. Great for tracing and copying, but it wouldn't stand up to any water at all.

[TroyWest]

The vellum from Hidecrafters is the about the same thickness as a regular sheet of typing paper. I have seen the thin vellum and it is as you described, just too thin and moisture causes it to wrinkle.

[King's X]

To piggyback on Mr. West, the paper from hidecafter is also mositure resistant. The cost at the moment is $5.99 per pack. I switched from the Tandy paper after my local store couldn't get a full roll in for a month of so. I really like the paper from Hidecrafter because I can place it in the printer and print out my favorite pattern since I am artisically challenged.

[Randy Cornelius]

After you draw your pattern on Velum you can also stick it to clear shelf paper. Works great and you can use them over and over. Get clear shelf paper from Walmart.

Randy