I made cloth tags to go with the reusable cloth gift bags. Initially, I used paper ones, but they had a habit of disappearing, tearing, and getting crunched up. I figured that I could take a little time this year to make some nice ones that might last a little longer.
Materials:
Makes about 18 tags.
- 2 quarter yards of cotton Fabric – one for the backing, and another less busy print for the lettering
- Embroidery Floss
- Embroidery Needle
- Embroidery Hoop
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Fabric Marker or Pencil
- Pins
- Iron with Ironing Board
- Sewing Machine and matching Thread
- 24 Ribbons – about 5″- 7″ long
Directions:
- Iron out the fabric so that it lies flat.
- Use a fabric marker and ruler to draw a grid on the right-side of the lettering fabric. The grid should be about 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″.
- Draw a matching grid on the wrong-side (backside) of the backing fabric.
- Embroider initials in the center of each block of the lettering fabric. There should be about 18 blocks and, therefore, 18 initials.
- Iron out the lettering fabric.
- Place the lettering fabric on a flat surface facing right-side up.
- Place the backing fabric on top of the letting fabric wrong-side up. The grid should be visible, and match the grid on the lettering fabric below.
- Pin the fabrics together.
- Sew along the vertical (not the horizontal) lines using the grid lines as a guide. You should sew 1/4″ away from the grid lines and the fabric edges. Make sure you sew on both sides of the grid line if there are tags on each side of the line.
- Cut the tags out – cutting along the grid lines.
- Keep the tags inside-out, and tuck a folded ribbon inside each tag. Pin the ribbon ends to the top of each tag.
- Sew the across the top of each tag. Make sure that the ribbon is held in place, and that only the ribbon ends are sewn into place.
- Sew across the bottom leaving 1/2″ free so that you can flip the fabric right-side out. Make sure to avoid sewing the tucked in ribbon.
- Flip the fabric right-side out, and sew the 1/2″ hole closed. You can do this with a needle and thread for a nicer finish, or if you want to cut a few corners, you can proceed to do this on the machine.
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Tips:
- Keep yourself organized: make sure you are always aware of which side (inside/outside, wrong-side/right-side, invisible side/visible side) you are working on.
- Treat your letting fabric as a piece of paper with a clear top, bottom, right, and left side.
- Use the ribbon and a wooden dowel (a pen or pencil will also work) to flip your tags right-side out.
The Ephemeral Bee 