Clothing Label Tutorial Part II

Ok, here is the second installment of how to make your own labels for your handmade clothes. Now that your material is dried, you will need to iron it onto a piece of freezer paper. You can find freezer paper in the grocery store on the aisle that the paper plates is on. Cut out your freezer paper to fit in your printer.

Then iron your freezer paper onto your fabric making sure that you iron on the paper side. The shiny side should be on top of the fabric.

Once your fabric is ironed on, you can begin to print onto it. I use Avery Design Pro to design my labels. They have lots of different templates to choose from and it's free. But you could use any imaging software that you prefer.

After you have your labels designed like you want them, you can begin to print them on your color ink jet printer. I always print out one page on plain paper before I print on my fabric.

Here I have drawn an arrow on my test page to make sure which side the copy will print on. I want it to print on my fabric not the freezer paper. In my printer, the freezer paper is facing up. Now I can print my labels out. Hurray! Success!

Now cut the labels out using my clear ruler, cutting mat, and rotary cutter.

After they are cut out, you will need to rinse them in Bubble Jet Rinse. Remove the freezer paper from the back of the labels and rinse them in cold water for about 5 minutes. After they are rinsed out, squeeze the excess water out and let them dry on a towel.

When they are dry, you can bag them up in a resealable plastic bag so that they will be ready for you to put them in your clothes. I use two strips of  1/2 inch wide Steam A Seam to bond them to my handmade doll clothes. It's just what works for me. You could also hand sew them in if you would like. I hope that this tutorial has inspired you to be creative with making labels for your handmade clothing items. 

Clothing Label Tutorial Part I

When I started making and selling clothes for American Girl dolls (or other 18" dolls), I knew that I wanted to put my own label with my company logo on it in my doll clothes. But I didn't know exactly how to do it and I didn't have a lot of money to get someone else to do it. So after searching on the Internet I finally found a way that I could make my own company labels that looked good and saved me money. So if you would like to learn how I do it, here is a tutorial for you. This tutorial is done in two parts. The first one is done tonight and I'll do the second one tomorrow.

I wanted a way to be able to print on fabric. You can buy fabric that you can print on but it's kind of expensive and this way will save you money.
First of all, you will need a product called Bubble Jet Set. I found it online for about $10. It is made from formaldehyde so you will need to be careful and wear gloves to protect your skin. The other is called Bubble Jet Rinse. This sets the ink on your fabric after you have printed it out.

You will want to choose a fabric to print your labels on. I chose muslin. It just works for me. But you might want to use cotton jersey because it will not fray like the muslin will. I use Fray Check on my labels after they are dried. I cut my fabric out the size of an 8 x 11" piece of copy paper to fit in my ink jet printer. I like to use color but you could use black and white if you want to.

After I cut my fabric with a rotary cutter, I thoroughly saturate my fabric with the Bubble Jet Set. I let it soak in the solution for about 5 minutes. Remember to use your rubber gloves!

After five minutes is up, I squeeze out the fabric and pour the excess back into the bottle to use again the next time. I will now flatten the fabric out and let it dry. This usually takes overnight so this is all until tomorrow. Come back tomorrow to see how I print the labels out!

New Blog Look

I've got a new look to my blog. I got the background from Shabbyblogs.com. And the header was also downloaded from Shabby Blogs. She's also got a great tutorial on how to put pictures in your header. Tell me what you think.

Memorial Day Outfits

Here are a few outfits that are perfect for Memorial Day or any patriotic holiday. These outfits would be great to wear on a holiday picnic or cookout. Of course let's take a little time to remember what this holiday is all about. It is about remembering those who have served in the military and died so that we can enjoy things like picnics, cookouts and having fun with our family. Let's never forget that.