For some time now, years I guess, I have wanted labels to put in the things I create. So that one day, when my daughters are digging through the boxes of old textiles I saved for them to pass on to their children, that they will know which ones were lovingly hand stitched by me. I think it also adds a personal touch when giving a handmade item as a gift...sort of like a signature on a painting.
Today I finished a group of tags I had in the works a while back...as far back as May 2010 that is...and then our printer died.
Today I finished a group of tags I had in the works a while back...as far back as May 2010 that is...and then our printer died.
Originally I had all these pieces of cut up photo transfer paper organized in little plastic ziplocs and was just going to iron a label as I needed it, some I thought would just be ironed directly to the garment rather than on a tag. These started out in a grid like form on an 8 by 10 sheet of paper and then I printed them on photo transfer paper. I think I used an address label template on a word program and then printed in each block what I wanted...each one different. I like to experiment. I cut close to the words and that seems to keep the labels softer, rather than stiff. According to the directions the tranfer will soften with washings also.
These are the finished tags. Some are loop style, and others will be sewn on like a flat piece. Since it has been a while since I looked at these, some of the name ideas seem silly and not at all me. But that is what experimenting is for...and maybe a few years from now, my tags will evolve and be different. For now, this is what I could do with a printer, transfer paper, my grandpas old chrome sunbeam iron, and some twill tape.
I am mostly leaning towards the ones with 'Ragshini', pronounced rag-shee-nee. It's pretty simple and has a simple personal story behind it. For those who know me, I am open to suggestions for new names. I tried coming up with something redhead in the name, but nothing is hitting me like a brick so far.
I had the idea of using a continuous length of twill tape, and wished I'd have thought of it sooner in my pressings. It could work well to store them on the twill tape this way and wrapped around an old wooden spool, especially if the labels were consistent in their design, which eventually I should do for simplicities sake, and when I decide what I like the looks of best.
It was fun to see the final product of these labels with my daughters name. Next time I might do her full name including last, as I always find it remarkable to find a piece of history like an old crazy quilt, with a full name written in ink somewhere on the fabric.
