How To Make Fabric Labels

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How-To: Making your own fabric product label

WARNING: This is kind of a long posting and probably will not interest you in the least unless you really want to know how to make labels. So feel free to skip this=) I kind of just ramble on about my experience in making fabric labels!

This is really so much easier than you might think! There are a couple of variations on how you can go about doing this the way I do it. And I’m sure you could find numerous other tutorials all over the internet on how to do it. But this is the way I have done it myself and I really like the way it has turned out!

**Do not use a laser printer for any of this. It could damage a laser printer. But it works great for an inkjet!

Okay, the very easiest way but more expensive way to do this is to go to JoAnn Fabrics (other craft stores have them I’m sure, but I do know that JoAnn’s carries them) and purchase what is called fabric paper. There are different brands and qualities and different uses for each of them. I bought the one I did because it said that the ink would not wash out. Since I make baby things, it was important to me that the ink not wash out, because as we all know, baby things get messy!

The Brand that I bought is called Printed Treasures. Sometimes they go on sale for 50% off or buy one, get one free. That is when I bought mine. Also, sometimes you can find good deals by doing some comparing online. I have even found fairly good deals on ebay. But if you can get them half off at the fabric store it is about $10 for a pack of 5 sheets. So that makes them at least 2 bucks a sheet. A little pricey if you ask me. But they are very convenient. And if you don’t need very many then it isn’t too bad.

All you have to do with this product is load the fabric sheet into your printer (making sure that it is facing the right way for it to print onto the fabric side and not the paper backing side), and print your label! And of course you’ll want to make the most out of each sheet so you’ll want to use a computer program to make multiple copies to print onto one sheet.

With these sheets, after I print the labels, I peel the paper backing off and I use Heat ‘n’ Bond (that is what those rolls are in the picture above) and iron that onto the backside. For labels that you don’t want to have to sew on, use the Heat ‘n’ Bond No Sew. For labels that you would like to sew on, you can use Heat ‘n’ Bond Lite. Or if you are planning on sewing it on, you don’t have to use any iron on backing. I just think that it makes it easier to handle. And then you don’t have to try and pin down a little piece of fabric. You can just iron it into place and then sew it.

Here is the less expensive, little more complicated (but not much) way of making fabric labels.

You will need some fairly good quality white muslin. Non-bleached muslin would probably work too if you would want to use that. ( I bought some at JoAnn fabrics and used a 40% off coupon.) Cut out some 8 ½ X 11 or slightly smaller, blocks of fabric. If you are going to use Heat ‘n’ Bond, decide which kind you want to use and cut it out the same size as you fabric blocks. Iron it onto the fabric and then you can use them just like the store bought fabric sheets. Just make sure you don’t peel off the paper backing until after you print on it. Load them into your printer facing so that it will print onto the fabric. And print!

This is a picture of the fabric going through the printer with freezer paper attached to one side!

If you don’t want to use the Heat ‘n’ Bond then you can use freezer paper. Yes, I said freezer paper! The box of freezer I just bought even shows different craft uses for it!

Cut the freezer paper to the size of your fabric blocks and lightly iron the shiny side onto the fabric. (Lay your fabric down first. Then place the freezer paper, shiny side down onto the fabric.) That will make the fabric stiff enough to go through the printer. You can then easily peel the freezer paper off when you are through. It doesn’t leave a layer of plastic on it like Heat ‘n’ Bond does.

I liked how the Heat ‘n’ Bond made the fabric go through the printer better than how the freezer paper made it go through. But they both worked fine.

The ink does fade quite a bit more with making your own fabric sheets. But if you are putting in on something that won’t be washed it would be fine. Or if you would want to print out a design to be hand stitched or something like that, it would be great! Also, if it would be all black ink that would make it a lot better as well. When I washed a trial sheet that had all different colors, it faded a lot. But the all black labels you could still see pretty well although it did fade. But it is a much more economical way of doing it!

Hope you enjoyed this documentary how-to on fabric labels. If you have any other questions about it, just ask, and I’ll see if I can help!