A correspondent on a ceramics discussion site recommended "cicada wing" xuan (shuen) paper as used for traditional Chinese brush painting. Blue Heron Arts sent some amazingly quickly.
It has poor wet strength but perhaps adequate. It is said to be sized, maybe with glue and alum. It has some of what appear to tiny shiny mica flakes, but these are sparse and appear not to cause trouble.
Before making the impression, I size one side of the paper by rubbing bar soap on it, then mist the other side very lightly with water, then print on the soaped side. The soap seems to make the paper more supple even before misting. Ink take up seems very good, and unlike tissues, the ink does not push much through voids to the back side and backing sheet (dampened newsprint).
Unlike sewing pattern paper, it tends to disintegrate rather than float off intact when soaked after transfer. This is a bit annoying, but it might not be a big problem.
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