fabric tag tutorial

  

This one is for my fellow makers.  I've had a few people ask where I get the fabric tags I sew into the inside of my things.  (Well, they are handmade, of course!)  So here is the often promised and therefore long awaited tutorial as to how I make these tags. 

Materials:  Printable Fabric sheets, Heat&Bond, Rotary Cutter & Mat (preferred), Scissors, Iron

  1.  The Fabric:  I use a fabric sheet and I print my logo/name on it with my ink jet printer.  These fabric sheets are specially treated to be washable and are temporarily adhered to a heavier piece of paper to allow it to feed through your printer.  There are many of these products on the market but the one I prefer is the cotton poplin by Soft Scrap.

2.  Create your layout.  Most of the printable fabric sheets you will find are 8 1/2" x 11" or just shy.  My individual tags are 1" tall and 1 1/2" wide so I can get 45 tags out of one sheet.  I've left the layout lines of my tags as a very light grid when printed.   I can use these lines to cut my tags later.  Your sheets may vary depending on your logo/name and how you choose to finish your tag.  I used Photoshop to do my layout but it can be accomplished by using a word processing program. 

3.  Print your sheets and carefully peel the fabric off the heavy paper backing reducing the amount of fraying you get around the edges.

4.  Heat & Bond:  Cut a piece of Heat&Bond that is just slightly shy of your fabric size.  Lay your fabric face down on your ironing board and smooth out with your hands. Lay the Heat&Bond (adhesive side down and paper side up) on top of your fabric and iron.  Read Heat&Bond's Instructions if you haven't used the product before.

5.  After ironing, your piece will be very hot.  Let it cool and do not remove the paper backing of the Heat&Bond just yet.

6.  Using your rotary cutter and the faint grid you set up when you created your layout in #2, cut your sheet into columns.  I suggest using the rotary cutter because it is faster and it makes a cleaner cut. 

7.  Now you can remove the paper backing of the Heat&Bond.  You'll notice that because of the Heat&Bond on the back, there is hardly any any fraying of the fabric allowing  you to have a clean edge on our tag.  

8.  Now that the paper is removed, grab  your scissors and cut on the horizontal lines of the grid to turn that column of tags into a pile of individual tags.  You don't have to be quite so careful about your cuts here because the top and bottom edges of your tags are likely going to be hidden inside the seam of your project.  Also, make sure you removed the paper backing of the Heat&Bond back in step #7 otherwise you will have to peel each individual paper backing off each individual tag and its a huge pain and involves fair amount of cursing.

9.  Make a fold in the tag just below your logo.  The exposed Heat&Bond is slightly tacky so your fold should hold until you iron.  My fold ends up being about 1/3 of the way  up from the bottom.  I prefer not to have a tag that is merely folded in half because it means my tag will be two layers thick where i need to sew through it.  This is a problem for me as my material thicknesses already add up fairly quickly and having a thicker tag can sometimes be a problem. By folding under only a portion of the tag, I achieve the same look, save my seams and also can fit more tags on a sheet as I didn't have to make them taller.  In any case, look at your seam allowances and your logo/name size and adjust as needed for your project. 

10.  Iron your tag to seal everything up tight.  Iron on the back and if you are only doing a partial fold like me, be careful to not touch the bare Heat&Bond surface with your iron... it will get messy and there will be cursing again.  You will need to google "how to clean my iron".

11.  Your almost done.  Time to clean up the final product.  Now you should have a nice clean fold running along the bottom of  your tag and as I mentioned back in #8, the top of your tag is likely to be hidden inside the seam allowance but the sides of your tag may need a little attention.   If your fold wasn't absolutely perfect or if the edge just needs a little clean up or balancing of the white space on either size of your name/logo, just grab the sharpest scissors you have and clip the sides so it looks good.    

Finished.  Now sew them in something.

 
(p.s. I have no affiliation with Soft Scrap, Heat&Bond, Olfa, T-Fal or Fiskars).

Comments

[Cfrmi]

What a fabulous tute! Thank you for sharing. I'll direct people *here* from now on when they ask me about this (since I don't sew labels into jewelry).

Btw ~ congrats on getting accepted into Cargoh!

Chris
ula & enaldie

[BohèmeCircus]

Thank you for this tutorial ! I love this idea, I go to try today !

[Laura Belle]

thanks angie, these look gorgeous!

[Jessica]

what a great tutorial! thanks so much--i'd always wondered how this was done. your tags are beautiful!

[Mrs T]

i love this tutorial! thanks for sharing it!

i hope you don't mind but i've got a couple of questions:
we can't get printable fabric sheets in dubai but i've got printable canvas - do you think that would work?

and should i still heat and bond it? is heat and bond like hem tape?

i have an epson printer and only use original inks - should i still scotchguard the labels?

thanks in advance!!!

[Angie Davis - Byrd & Belle]

Hello Mrs T!

You could certainly try with the canvas. My concern would be that the fabric would be to textured to pull off good resolution with the print on the tag.

All printers/ink are different and they will all have various degrees of permanence on any printable fabric sheets. Test your Scothguard and your tag survives the application, it certainly won't hurt

Yes, 'Heat&Bond' is a lot like hem tape.

Cheers,
Angie

[Mrs T]

Thanks for your tips Angie!

The canvas is supposed to be all-purpose printing for printing photos on canvas... lets see! i will let you know :-D

i found some ultrahold heat&bond in my stash: saves me having to iron each tape on separately!

[clothing labels]

I have just come across this tutorial. Thank you so much, I have been wanting to add my own labels to my knitware. I am going to have a go at this. I'll keep checking for more of your productively effective feeds.