I did a test with surprising result! You are looking at a bleed test using alcohol. A very common fursuit maintenance product.

Some questions I’ve received:
What do I do if I, or my maker, used something that has the tendency to bleed on my suit? What can I do?
– Share these results with your friends or maker so they can see, and encourage them to test it for themselves.
– You cannot use alcohol or alcohol-based products to maintain your suit, (which is a shame because they are so useful!) and avoid spilling alcoholic drinks, it only takes a little bit for the bleeders to travel very far.
– When it comes time to wash, use regular detergent, your fursuit may still bleed over time or with sweat however.
– If it is a little bit of it in the seam allowance, carefully trim it off to prevent further bleeding. Leave 1/8 inch (½ cm) allowance as a bare minimum.
– You may not be able to recover a fursuit that has been made with a bleeding mark if it is allowed to spread. Very small bleed stains can be washed out with a LOT of alcohol, however the worst case scenario is it will bleed far worse or you will need to replace the fur altogether.

What should I use instead?
– One of the other common marking items that have a green checkmark works perfectly! Quilters Washout pencils washed out completely in this test, they are available here: http://amzn.to/1CmzKpJ Not shown in the test is a lot of things, so if you’re worried about it, test it!
– Use a small piece of paper pinned to the backing of your patterns to mark “left arm” “fur direction —>” etc. Or simply pin your pattern piece with those notes on it to your fur until you need to sew it. You should avoid using a lot of markings on the back of your pattern pieces if you can.
– Mark only in the seam allowance, and cut it off so it is not part of your finished project.

What if I want a cool effect, can I use this bleeding to my advantage?
– Keep in mind it will continue to travel, including getting on your UnderArmor, clothing, or skin.

What do I use on dark fabric?
– Chalk, white or sliver quilters washout pencil, light color prismacolor or crayola pencils (white, yellow, blue, etc), white charcoal pencil.
– Personally I almost exclusively use a chalk wheel that looks like this on my dark fabrics: https://suznquilts.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/dscn4237.jpg I pin my pattern pieces to my cut fabric, so the chalk rubbing off is not an issue for me since I don't need to mark up directions on the back of my fabrics and always cut the same seam allowance.

I want to encourage everyone to try this test for themselves to see how far and how fast the bleed can be for the marking implement you choose. Only a little drop of alcohol made the worst bleeders travel VERY far quickly.

Also for what its worth, red was the worst, not only did it bleed the most at the end of this test, but it bled all the way through the paper I had this test sitting on to absorb and STAINED MY TABLE. So avoid reds the most!