You can make fabric sewing labels using your home printer! Check out this blog for all the DIY tips and tricks to make your home sewing look super profesh with your customised labels!
Thank you to Melissa for creating this DIY label blog for our Below The Kōwhai community.
To see more of Melissas colourful quilt and garment sewing you can follow her on Instagram at @melissakquilts.
Printed fabric labels are easy to make, completely customisable and washable.
As shown here on Melissa’s Kauri Dress, you can get as playful or as professional as you would like with your own fabric sewing labels!
To make your own labels, you will need:
– Scrap Fabric (quilting cotton works well)
– Basting Spray
– Printer Paper
– Inkjet / Deskjet Printer
– Computer
Design and Print
First up, design your label on your computer.
This can be as simple as typing something up, but you could add simple images, or sketch something out and scan it in to your computer.
If you want to print multiple labels out onto one page, space them out in your document so that you have room to cut around them later on when you want to use them.
Next, you need to prepare your fabric for printing.
Iron your fabric to remove creases.
Spray baste the wrong side of your fabric.
This is best done outdoors or in a well ventilated room. I advise setting up some newspaper or a cloth to act as a drop sheet as the spray is sticky and can be hard to clean off surfaces.
Be careful to only lightly spray your fabric as it can discolour your fabric when applied too heavily.
Stick the sprayed side of your fabric to a sheet of printer paper. Trim any excess fabric off the edge of the paper with scissors or a rotary cutter.
I have centred my labels in the document I created, so I have used scrap fabric down the middle of my page – it doesn’t matter that the fabric doesn’t meet the edges of the paper as I won’t be printing there.
Pop your prepared fabric paper sheet into your printer.
You might want to do a test print first on a plain piece of fabric to check what side of the page your printer prints on and if your labels will fit onto the fabric you are using correctly.
Check your print settings. If you are printing multiple pages, check you are only printing one page per sheet. Change the print quality to the best option available.
Hit print and watch your beautiful labels come to life!
Cut and Sew
Set the ink of your labels by running a hot iron over them.
Cut around your labels to your desired size, including a small seam allowance so you can fold over the edges.
Peel off the paper backing. Fold over the edges of your label to the back of the fabric. Press with an iron for a sharp edge.
Hand or machine sew onto your garment, quilt, or project of choice!
The perfect little finishing touch.
Thank you for creating this blog post for our community Melissa!
We can’t wait to see your beautiful handmade garments finished off with your own personalised fabric sewing labels.
Show us your finished creations in our VIP Community on Facebook and tag us on Instagram!
Love and happy sewing,
Sophie x
These labels are great! Avery makes paper labels, and has an online tool for designing your own. I am pretty sure this tool will work for fabric labels, too.
Great idea, thanks for sharing!