Fancy Luggage Tag Tutorial

I have mentioned before that my girls will be going to a Daycare soon. And for some reason I feel like I have to specially make every little accessorie for them to make the whole experience as special for them (ME!) as possible. Over the past few days I have worked on a set of lunch boxes for them. Including a special name tag for each of them.

I really enjoyed making those tags and wanted to share with you the process.

The materials you will need:

- 3x5 inch piece of light colored fabric (I used a piece of an old white bed sheet)

- 3x5 inch piece of really heavy and stiff interfacing

- 3x5 inch piece of a fabric scrap of your choice for the back of the tag

- 1.5 x 17 inch strip of the same fabric as you are using for the back of the tag. This will be for your binding.

- 8 inch piece of 7/8" ribbon (I heat treated the ends to prevent fraying.)

- 1 sew-on snap

- embroidery floss (I used pearl floss.)

- felt flowers, buttons for embellishing

Okay, ready??? Here we go.

1. Use your machine to stich the light colord fabric to your interfacing around the outer edges. Go as close to the edge as possible.

2. Use a pencil and lightly write out the name you want to embroider. Embroider the name by following the letters you drew out. I used a simple back stitch.

3. Embellish your tag as you wish. Attach fabric or felt flowers, buttons or embroider some cute images. Make sure to not go too close to the outer edge. You will need about 1/2 inch around the perimeter to attach the binding later on.

4. Using your machine stitch the fabric you are planning to use for the back of your tag with right side up to the tag.

5. Time for the button hole. Due to my button-hole-phobia I decided to make mine by hand again. But you can certainly use your machine for this step. Make the hole slightly bigger than the width of your ribbon. Mine ended up being a bit wider than 1 inch.

6. Attach your binding. I typically fold and press my fabric strips before sewing them on (in half lengthwise first, then the long edges towards the center, then in half again). There is also a nice tutorial for how to bind a quilt here. This would work well for this project, too.

7. Time for the ribbon strap. Sew the bottom piece of your snap to the top on one end of your ribbon. The top piece has to go onto the opposite side on the bottom side of your ribbon. When sewing the top piece line up a decorative button on the right side of your ribbon; catching both snap and button at the same time (Hope this makes sense. If not, please let me know.)

Alright, you are all done. Thanks for staying with me.

Here is a picture of my complete project. The pattern for the lunch bag is courtesy of Oh Fransson.